The Last River Trip

 If you've read several of these blogs, you know that I've made a few trips down  the Arkansas River to the Mississippi.  The last trip was in September, 2018 and you can read about it in an October, 2018 blog post.

At the time we made that trip, I wasn't sure I would ever do it again.  With each trip, the sleeping bag became increasingly hard and uncomfortable.  However, no one ever accused me of being intelligent so we planned another trip this year.

The group this year would consist of my brother, Milt, and his good friend, Bill, in Bill's boat and my son, Dan, my cousin's husband, Jim, and myself in my boat.  We were going to change things up a bit and leave from Muskogee this year.  We had always left from Tulsa but were going to make this an abbreviated trip.

The plan was to put in at Muskogee Three Forks Harbor, go downstream to Little Rock, then return to Muskogee.  We figured it would be about a four day trip.  We were to leave on Saturday, September 17.

The appointed day came and we met in Muskogee.  We had decided that we weren't going to be in such a hurry on this trip since we weren't going nearly so far as we had on previous trips.  The first day, we took our time and did some fishing.  In fact, Dan caught a couple of Sauger right where the Illinois River dumps into the Arkansas.

Our plan was to spend the first night at Applegate Cove Marina on Kerr Reservoir.  We had stayed there before and had an enjoyable time.  Our first big surprise came when we got to Applegate Cove and discovered that it was closed and out of business!

Finding fuel on the river is always a challenging problem and we had planned on fueling at Applegate.  Fortunately, there was a guy there who had a key to the pump and we were able to top off our tanks.  We got to talking with him and he offered to let us sleep on the dock at the marina.  I'm not sure whether he had the authority to allow this but we took advantage of it anyway.  Sleeping on the dock that night reinforced my desire to not make this trip any more.

The next morning we took off down river and found ourselves at the Corps of Engineers Park in Ozark, Arkansas in late afternoon.  We had stayed in this park on previous trips so it seemed like a good place to stay again.  I haven't mentioned it before the the temperature on this whole trip was just better than unbearable.

After another miserable night of sleeping (and sweating) on the ground, we woke up the next morning and had a meeting.  Everyone agreed that we had had enough so we decided to turn around and go back upstream.  This would cut off at least two days travel to get to Little Rock and back.

Of course, this meant that we would spend the third night out at Applegate and be sleeping on that hard, hard dock again.  The trip back upstream was uneventful and we arrived back at Muskogee on Wednesday, September 20.

You may have noticed the title of the blog, "The Last River Trip".  As far as I'm concerned, unless I acquire a houseboat with air conditioning and a bed, I think I'm done.  I'm aware of the old adage, "Never say never", but I'm pretty close to never.

My Hometown

Although I was born in Rock Springs, Wyoming, and lived in Cromwell, Oklahoma for the first three or four years of my life, I consider Mannford, Oklahoma to be my hometown.  My mother was from Cromwell and just happened to be in Rock Springs when I was born.  My adoptive father was from the Mannford area and that's how we came to live there.

Mannford was a settlement on the banks of the Cimarron River and, prior to about 1904, didn't even have a name.  It was platted in 1904 and became a "for real" town before Oklahoma became a state in 1907.  Mannford was named after a gentleman who lived in the area and helped found the town.  His land included a low-water crossing on the river which became known as Mann's Ford, later shortened to Mannford.

For several years, Mannford was a growing area because of the railroad which ran through there, the farming and the cattle which were fed out in the area.  Eventually, the town reached a state of equilibrium and the population leveled out at about 500 people.  In 1951 when I was five years old, my father, with his new wife and two adopted sons, returned to Mannford.  Growing up in a small town was the best thing that could have happened to me.  Most of my memories of childhood are pleasant ones.

In the mid to late 1950's, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that a flood control reservoir would be built somewhere around the confluence of the Arkansas and Cimarron Rivers.  The lake was to be an integral part of the Arkansas River Navigation System which was then being constructed.  The system was conceived to allow navigation from Tulsa to the Mississippi River.

I remember that Life Magazine called the system the "biggest pork barrel project in the history of the United States".  Senators Mike McClellan of Arkansas and Robert S. Kerr of Oklahoma each had a tremendous influence in Washington, D.C. and were able to get the spending, about $4.3 billion at the time, approved.

At any rate, the construction of the flood control reservoir, to be called Keystone Lake after the nearest town to the dam location, began.  Several towns were to be affected, Cleveland, Osage, Prue, Keystone, and Mannford.  Cleveland and Osage were right on the edge of the flood control pool so elected to protect their towns with levies.  The town of Prue was more impacted and moved a short distance to escape the lake.  Keystone was not so fortunate; it would be about 50 feet under water so a serious move would be required.  Unfortunately, no leaders stepped up to lead this effort, and as a result, Keystone died except for memories.

My hometown, Mannford, was going to be mostly under water at flood stages and the Corps of Engineers gave them the option to either build levies to protect the town or to move it completely.  Several of Mannford's leaders took this as an opportunity to take the town into a new position and elected to move the town.  The location chosen was two miles east and two miles south of the old town, about 2.8 miles.  This would insure that they were on the relocated State Highway 51 as well as having the railroad run through it.  Incidentally, our family didn't have to move; we had been two miles east of Mannford and now we would live two miles north of the newly-located town.

In 1957, my family moved to Pampa, Texas, and we were there until 1960 when we returned to Mannford.  Some construction on the reservoir and ancillary projects began while we were in Pampa but the majority of the work began about the time we returned to Mannford.  Many things had to happen before the lake could be impounded including construction of new highways, railroad tracks, parks and moving many houses, businesses and even cemeteries.

By August, 1962, the new school had been completed and I started my junior year there.  Jobs for young people abounded and I did my share of construction work on park roads in the area.  We got to see a huge project being built right in our backyards and it was an exciting time!

Mannford has survived several natural disasters since it's move, including a tornado in April, 1984, which destroyed the High School, several churches, and many homes.  A wildfire in 2012 burned 60,000 acres and about 400 homes in the area but didn't get into the town proper.

Today the "new" town of Mannford has matured into a thriving community with a lot of amenities and I believe that it's proximity to Tulsa will make it a high growth area for the next 50 years.  The population has grown from about 2000 people in the 2000 Census to about 3000 in the 2010 Census.