Here’s the first edition of the quarterly newsletter for the Oklahoma Chapter of the Butterfield National Historic Trail Association. Contents include news about the Edwards Store, a trail guide for a segment of the Butterfield Trail at Lake Atoka, and a photographic retrospective on Nail’s Crossing. Join the National and Oklahoma BNHTA for early access to the next newsletter!
Finding the Butterfield – Now Available!
Now available on Amazon, the culmination of eight years of research and exploration on the Butterfield trail through Oklahoma, Finding the Butterfield!
Finding the Butterfield: A Journey Through Time in Indian Territory takes the reader through the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, both in the late 1850s as a passenger on the Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach and in the 2020s as an explorer seeking the remnants of the old trail in present-day Oklahoma. Book Description The Butterfield Overland Mail route of 1858-1861 was the United States’ first transcontinental stagecoach route, running from St. Louis and Memphis more than 2,800 miles to San Francisco, delivering the mail in less than twenty-five days, a remarkable performance for overland travel in the day. In 2023, the route was designated a National Historic Trail by the federal government, and the National Park Service is currently in the process of developing an interpretive plan for the entire trail. This book is the outcome of eight years of researching and exploring the two hundred miles of the trail which crossed the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, in present-day southeastern Oklahoma. This segment brims with historical treasure both in the sense of the physical remains of the trail and the insights into this pivotal time in the lives of the Choctaws and Chickasaws between removal and the Civil War. Building on the work done by historians in the 1930s and 1950s, this work updates the knowledge about the trail and its current state, also providing a guide for others to explore the old trail for themselves.
Grand Canyon Hiking and Backpacking Logistics
New article on the TrailGroove blog!
https://www.trailgroove.com/blogs/entry/268-grand-canyon-hiking-and-backpacking-logistics/
Beale’s Wagon Bridge Artifact Uncovered
Just published in the Chronicles of Oklahoma in their “Notes and Documents” section, a short piece on an important artifact associated with one of Beale’s 1859 wagon bridges in eastern Oklahoma. Read more below!
New Butterfield article in OutdoorX4
“The Butterfield Trail in Indian Territory: Time Travel on Wheels,” OutdoorX4, Issue 50.
Butterfield’s Overland Mail in the Indian Territory
Just published in the quarterly of the Oregon-California Trails Association, see my latest article on Butterfield’s Overland Mail in the Indian Territory.
Death on the Butterfield
My new article published in Desert Tracks, the journal of the Southern Trails chapter of the Oregon-California Trails Association, tells a tale of intrigue at a remote relay station on the Butterfield Overland Mail in the Choctaw Nation. Read it here!
The Butterfield Overland Mail in Oklahoma
I’ve recently compiled a number of resources on the Butterfield Overland Mail in Oklahoma into one page on my web site. Find it here: https://susandragoo.com/butterfield-oklahoma/
The Illusion of Wisdom: Hiking the Grand Canyon
The latest issue of TrailGroove magazine is out, and with it my photo on the cover and the story of my most recent backpacking trip into the Grand Canyon. See it here (beginning on page 17): https://www.trailgroove.com/issue54.html
Preserving the Okmulgee Colored Hospital
In the early twentieth century segregation touched every facet of life, including health care. Okmulgee’s African American community came together in the 1920s to build a hospital providing care to many who could not afford it. With the advent of integration the Okmulgee Colored Hospital closed its doors, but it has retained its historic integrity as the only Black hospital still standing in Oklahoma. Read my article on the history of the institution and its impact on the surrounding area, as well as the efforts of community leaders to rehabilitate the site for future use.in the latest issue of The Chronicles of Oklahoma (Volume XCIX, No. One, Spring 2021):
susan dragoo 