Okemah
Interesting fact: Okemah was named after a Kickapoo Indian Chief and means "things up high." Kickapoo Indians were a transplant from expulsion from the Republic of Texas. A series of governmental actions (Dawes + Curtis Acts) further disrupted the cultural and tribal ways of the Kickapoo. They had settled in "Indian Country" on land that was originally occupied by Osage and Quapaw, then Creek Nation after Indian Removal. Shortly before statehood, Shawnee folks platted land from Creek Indians in this area. Today about 23% of Okemah population is Native American, mostly Muscogee Creek that has its own federally recognized space in Okemah named "Thlopthlocco Tribal Town." This band also was displaced from Alabama and Georgia and forced to move to Indian Territory.
Creek Stick Ball Players at Thlopthlocco Tribal Town near Okemah, Oklahoma - 1924
Interesting fact: Okemah was opened up to white settlers in 1902. Once cattle grazing lands, when the white folk came, the first building was built by Indians, and during the early days of the town, the whole town was enclosed by barbed wire fence to protect folks from the longhorn steers.
Interesting fact: Or horrifying truth: Shortly after the town was "organized" by white folk, vigilantes (40 white men- critical race theory be damned!) lynched a 35 year old black woman and her teenage son (1911). There are 4 extant photographs of this event. In keeping with the gross and inhumane times, the owner of the Okemah photography studio took the pictures and they became "lynching postcards" a common practice of the times.
The best fact about Okemah, at least according to my husband, is that it is where Woody Guthrie hails from, so we just had to stop by and say, "hi" to whatever Woodie spirits were left swirling around (hopefully good, b/c we had also visited his 5 year "home" at Greystone Park State Hospital in N.J., and let me tell you there was really bad juju there). Speaking of institutionalization, Woody Guthrie's mom was also institutionalized when Woody was a teenager (and subsequently died at the Oklahoma Hospital for the Insane in 1930). Little was known at the time of the hereditary Huntington's Disease that Woody also died from.
We pulled into town around dusk and the town looked worn and abandoned (Covid Pandemic made many small places seen on this trip appear to be almost-Ghost Towns).
It looks like this once almost important building/block is empty. Of course I admired the brick.
Our first sign of habitation was a few folks at... you guessed it- a cannabis dispensary. We saw them all over the place in our travels around the South Central Midwestern states of the US. You can also notice another common sight to the right of the dispensary= signs of oil production, also a common sight.
The Crystal looks now like a rough diamond vs. a diamond in the rough. Opened in 1920, remodeled in 1930 and sadly closed in 2020.
Signs of hideous urban renewal in downtown Okemah.
The back side of town wasn't too pretty.
In fact it was very rundown in many places.
Sadly we thought someone(s) were living in this place despite the boarded up windows.
The more "modern" backside of the main drag had these corrugated metal buildings.
We were thrilled to finally stumble upon humans out recreating! And they even appeared to be of a mixed hue of melatonin.
Then we had to drive around the block a few times to find Woody's childhood home. We were looking for vestiges of this:
Or see below: A sad little story in a sad little town.
The residence most identified with Guthrie was known as the London house, London having been the name of a previous owner. Woody left Okemah when he was around 17 and never returned. The house just stood there while Woody traveled the country and became famous. In the early 1960s, a man named Earl Walker bought the London property, hoping to preserve its connection to Woody Guthrie. Walker couldn’t raise the money to repair the house. Hell, the town wouldn’t even tolerate a “Woody Guthrie Corner” in the public library, for folks who wanted to read his published work. A dirty commie is a dirty commie, and to true believers in Okemah it didn’t matter that there was no proof Guthrie even belonged to the Communist Party — or any other party, for that matter. Civic leaders announced that the abandoned London place was becoming a hangout for winos and teenagers, and as such, was a public nuisance. Eventually, in the late 1970s, the town forced Walker to tear the place down.
Alas, this is what we found:
No idea who put up the homemade marker, but we sure were glad for it.
Woody's neighbor, I'm sure, has seen quite a few of us pesky out-of-towners riding around the neighborhood.
FINALLY WOODY!!!
and a side note from "The Denver Post" (2013):
Not one, but 2 plaques!
And a slightly faded mural too!
And a sort of little billboard announcing the annual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival, which began in 1998.
That is one happy tourist in this picture!
and with that we drove off into the sunset and onto the next stop in our Sojourn 2021 journey.
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