OKC Thursday - Duncan Shops and Museums

Thursday, August 28th with Jeremy in Texas, Robin at work, and Autumn in daycare, Frank and I went to Duncan a 1 hour and 15 minutes long drive ~70 miles southwest of Robin's house. The downtown Main Street has a quaint feel to it with all the brick store fronts. Inlaid in the sidewalks are plaques noting the history of the various buildings in addition to some editorial comments.

The drive is just right, long enough to feel like you are on an outing,
short enough to be over before you are bored
with just the right mix of highway and country roads.

Frank and I enjoyed the three story antique mall, just one of several antique stores downtown.
We had lunch at the tea room of another antique store farther down Main Street.

This is typical of one of the inlaid history plaques.

Unlike my previous visit to Duncan where I bought and had to transport home two ceramic canister sets, I was much more restrained this time.  I bought a whistling watermelon tea kettle for our kitchen and a school bus metal bank for Alex. They were not breakable and really did not take up much suitcase space. Since they were both hollow I packed stuff in them for the trip home. Here are photos of them both.

The whistle on the tea kettle sounds like a train so Frank should like that.
The coin slot on the bank is in the center of the removable lid.

I like the store Distinctive Decor in Duncan. They have upscale china and eclectic home decor items from Italy, England, etc. in an unlikely town such as Duncan, OK. Their website is extensive and they are pretty pricey, but it costs nothing to look and it's still fun to visit a brick and mortar store with a collection of unique items you usually only see on the web. In this store I just had to snap a picture of this Mouse on a Motorcycle bookend. My kids loved the book of that title by Beverly Cleary and there were several TV specials that aired when they were little. The photo is a bit blurry but when I posted it I noticed the book in the foreground. How appropriate! I bought neither the heavy bookends that weigh over 8 lbs and cost over $80 nor the Grandpa book. But they are available on Amazon, so if I feel really deprived ...

Saw these bookends in Distinctive Decor, a shop I like in downtown Duncan, OK

You can find just about anything on Amazon! The mouse's cute helmet is made out of walnut wood.

Here are also a couple examples of the dishes and make-up bags that caught my eye on display in the store. The dishes are from Italy and Portugal and the bags are from London. I am not one to buy something just because of a label or a name but I am surprised to find such elaborate items, displayed in such an obscure town, in a state so focused on a football rivalry between the bright orange clad OSU Cowboys and the red clad OU Sooners. I get annoyed when people think that the state my daughter chose to live in is just full of uneducated hicks, a stereotype promoted by the Steinbeck novel Grapes of Wrath. And yet I cannot be too judgmental. My surprise that this store exists in a tiny Oklahoma town reveals a bit of prejudice I did not quite realize I might harbor.

The rooster plates are Vietri Galletto Dinnerware from Italy and
the botanical plates are Juliska Field of Flowers from Portugal.
I am not name dropping. I never heard of these brands. I just like the dishes

These zippered bags really look like they can stare you down. They are made in London by Catseye.
I do not wear enough makeup to fill one. Pity. They are cute!

After our downtown Duncan exploration, Frank and I headed out for an historic train depot housing just minutes from the Main Street that is home to an over 100 year old steam locomotive. The first passenger train from the Rock Island Rail Line arrived in Duncan in 1892 and the traffic the rail line brought helped develop the town. The large locomotive on display, called the Rock Island #905, was built in 1910 and is in the process of being restored. There was a gargantuan effort in April of 2011 to move it to where it rests now in Fuqua Park. We were lucky enough to drop in when the head volunteer was there and he gave us a personal tour of the upgrades being made on the locomotive and the background of its move to that particular location from a spot nearer the highway. An extensive website, http://www.rockisland905.com/, details the trials, tribulations, and challenges of that move and a history of the rail line and the locomotive. It was much better to hear it all from a personal guide thrilled to have an avid audience.

Duncan was able to flourish largely due to the presence of the railroad.

This historic depot is visible from US highway 81
and is less than a mile from downtown Duncan.

The Rock Island Steam Locomotive #905 is undergoing restoration. The overlying sheet metal
has been removed in order to expose and dispose of the asbestos insulation around its boiler.

Frank poses next to a caboose on a section of rail adjacent to Rock Island Steam Locomotive #905.

Inside the caboose, Franks sits next to the conductor
who wears a uniform typical of the dress for that period of time.

Our next stop for the day was the Chisholm Trail Heritage Center, 1.6 miles away. The Chisholm Trail was the path taken when cowhands drove cattle from Texas north to the Kansas railheads. Outside the heritage center a stone walkway wends its way around the building with markers labeling towns passed while traveling along the trail. The endpoints of the replica trail are marked with bronze plaques and the Kansas end of the trail has a large bronze sculpture.

A stone walkway illustrating the Chisholm Trail with the towns along it
is marked at either end by commemorative bronze plaques

At the Kansas end of the trail is an impressive bronze sculpture of horses with mounted cowboys,
longhorn steer, cattle dogs, and a horse drawn covered chuck wagon.

From the southernmost point of the trail at Donna, TX to the northernmost point of the trail at Abilene, KS is over 950 miles. Duncan, Oklahoma is about midway on the trail. It could take as long as 100 days where cowboys were paid $1 a day to move the cattle to the northern railheads. The excursion was fraught with dangers of stampedes, drowning, and a hot relentless sun, with sporadic horrendous thunder and lightning storms. The monotonous food menu was bacon, bean, and biscuits, daily. 

If you look closely you can see my reflection in the panhandle of Texas
as I take this photo of the Chisholm Trail map display.

Once inside the heritage center there were movie presentations, an audio-animatronic demonstration of life along the drive, and interactive displays where you could be the trail boss. You made decisions such as the best way to stop a stampede, ford a river, negotiate with Indians, prevent rustlers, and eventually you'd find out how successful you'd been at getting your herd to trail's end. Frank and I tried roping a long horn. Frank succeeded but I did not.

Frank's lassoing skills were pretty good and he roped a longhorn from horseback.

My roping skills were inferior but I was good at comforting this steer who had been lassoed.

At the day's closure of the heritage center, we drove back north to Robin's home in Oklahoma City. We drove though torrential rain for short stretches and clear skies for other stretches. Such is the  fickleness of Oklahoma weather. Calling Robin we learned she had nothing but a drizzle at her house. Jeremy had arrived back from teaching his session in Texas. We stopped at a local grocery store and brought home fried chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner.

After dinner, we snuggled on the couch, read to Autumn, and watched The Lion King with her. It had been a good day.

Hakuna Matata. No worries!