Great Plains Museum

Toured the Great Plains Museum in Lawton.  It was very interesting to learn about the history of Oklahoma.  We have all heard about the Dust Bowl but we never knew what really caused it.  Now we know.

Typical Homestead House.  Windmills very important for water. (There is always plenty of Wind)

Dust bowl times.

This is the root system of the prairie grasses that were growing here when the settlers arrived.
The 1920's were very wet and the soil very fertile.  Many people came and settled here and made good money farming.
The 1930's came and no rain.  The crops dried up and could not hold the soil.  The winds blew away millions of
tons of top soil.  Some went as far as New York.  The great depressions forced many farmers from their lands to seek
employment elswhere.

Tribes of Native Americans from all over the country were forced to relocate to Oklahoma.  Because of the friction between the Native Americans and the new settlers the Army decided the best way to solve the problem was to take away the very
life of the Tribes-- The Buffalo.  They used virtually the whole buffalo for everything from shelter to food to tools etc.  They systematically wiped out the buffalo killing millions just to subdue the Native Americans.

Sylvia standing in from of a picture taken of a pile of buffalo heads.

Something like 17 tornadoes in one day.

A pile of debris after a tornado.  And us without a tornado cellar!!!