Robert Rogers - Westville, Oklahoma

DATE VISITED:  05/01/2015

HISTORICAL SITE:  Robert Rogers

  

LOCATION:  US 59, Westville, Adair Co., Oklahoma

MARKER #:  64-1995

“Robert Rogers. A signer of the treaty of New Echota and Grandfather of famed Will Rogers. Robert Rogers moved with his wife, Sally Vann, to Indian Territory about 1837, and established a home about 1 mile NW. He was killed in 1842, in a tribal feud as were many of the treaty signers following the forced removal of the Cherokees in 1838-39. He is buried near his home site about ½ mile north and ¾ miles west of here. His widow later married a Virginian, William Musgrove”

Note: “here” is the Baptist Mission Cemetery at US-59, Westville, Oklahoma

MARKER PLACED BY:  Oklahoma Historical Society

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS: 

In 1835, before the Trail of Tears march, a group of Cherokees signed an agreement (The Treaty of New Echota) with the U.S. government to give up all lands east of the Mississippi in exchange for $5 million dollars and lands in what would become Oklahoma.

Some Cherokees, including Robert Rogers, quietly moved to Oklahoma. They are called the “old settlers”.

Many Cherokees, including Chief John Ross, denounced and defied the treaty.

Finally, in 1839, the U.S. Army rounded up the Indians and forced them to walk, in winter, to new homeland in Oklahoma…this is the “Trail of Tears”.

I wonder…if it hadn’t been for the fact that Robert Rogers was the Grandfather to Will Roger, would we really know him as anything more than a signer of the Treaty of New Echota?

Interestingly, I came upon some disagreement whether it is THIS Robert Rogers who truly signed the treaty. It’s said that if it had been him, he would have been about 20 at the time and a Dr. Robert Rogers in Georgia put it in his will that HE was the one who had signed the treaty.

The Cherokees, to this day, believe it was the Robert Rogers I am writing about and apparently so does the Oklahoma Historical Society since they put in on the landmark…a mystery!

Robert, along with his wife Sally, prospered in the new land and it was conspicuous among the Cherokee. They had two children, a boy and a girl.

In 1842, some full blooded Cherokees crept up on Robert and shot him. The lives of several other signers of the treaty also ended in assassination/murder.

A shame, if this wasn’t the Robert Rogers who signed the treaty, then the murder was a horrible mistake.

 

Their home, along with a small family cemetery was a couple of miles north of the mission church.

Oklahoma Route 66 Museum – Clinton, Oklahoma

DATE VISITED:  04/30/2015

SITE:  Oklahoma Route 66 Museum

LOCATION:  2229 W. Gary Blvd, Clinton, Custer Co., Oklahoma

 “The Oklahoma Route 66 Museum opened on September 23, 1995. The museum is operated by the Oklahoma Historical Society and focuses on the history of Route 66.

The redevelopment of the museum was funded with federal, state and private funds, with the citizens of Clinton, Oklahoma contributing over $200,000.00.

Will Rogers and Route 66 are symbols of American optimism. They have become internationally known, sharing Oklahoma with the world.

‘We are here just for a spell and then pass on…so get a few laughs and do the best you can. Live your life so that whenever you lose, you are ahead’…Will Rogers”

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS: 

I’m sure each state that Route 66 goes through (Illinois, Missouri Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona & California) has its own museum and originally Dana and I were supposed to visit the “national” one, but after reading some reviews on TripAdvisor, we changed our minds and went to Oklahoma’s instead.

I’m really glad we did. The museum is quite a bit larger than I expected and the layout is easy to deal with. How would you set up a museum to the most iconic road in America? Oklahoma did it by decades. You could see the development and use of the road through pictures, music and memorabilia as each decade passed by. There is as much or as little information as you could want and it would be a great place to bring kids as an introduction.

Route 66 is also known as the “Will Rogers Highway” but more affectionately as the “Main Street of America” and the “Mother Road”.

The U.S. Highway System established Route 66 on November 11, 1926 as one of the original highways. There was some arguing over the numbering with the originators wanting 60 but then decided 66 was a pleasant sound when saying the number. And even realized that in numerology 6 was a good sign.

The U.S. Route 66 Association, based in Oklahoma, was instrumental in ensuring the highway was the first U.S. Highway to be totally paved, having done so by 1938.

While the road had plenty of traffic the entire time it was an official highway, there were 3 periods that sealed it as America’s road…

It was the migration path for those going west during the Dust Bowl in the 1930's, especially with families from Oklahoma and Arkansas; 

It served as the main path of military equipment and personnel during WWII and saw lots of travel from people looking for jobs that supported the military in California; 

And finally, in the 1950's, for vacationing families.

But as American’s fell in love with the car, the demand for bigger, faster and better highways spelled the death of the Mother Road.

Oklahoma was the first state to build an interstate parallel to Route 66, bypassing all the towns…first going west from Tulsa to Oklahoma City and then going east from Tulsa to the Oklahoma/Missouri border. This route basically bypassed all of Kansas.

Other states followed and Route 66 was officially removed from the U.S. Highway System on June 27, 1985.

Parts passing through Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico, and Arizona have been now designated as “Historic Route 66” and several states, including Oklahoma, have named former Route 66 sections to “State Route 66”

While you can no longer drive Route 66 uninterrupted, with some planning, you can drive a good portion of it and there is a revival of sorts.

Route 66 is known for all its eclectic motels, diners, gas stations, and just plain oddities. This is one road that is not slinking into obscurity and those tiny towns it passed through and the people who live in those towns are fighting to keep it alive.

The road was memorialized with the smooth voice of Nat KingCole in the 1946 hit song “Get Your Kicks On Route 66” and for the 1960’s TVshow, “Route 66”.

In 2008, Route 66 was placed on the “Worlds Monument” watch list.  This has allowed towns and individuals to apply for grants to rehabilitate those roadside buildings before they are destroyed, either by neglect or development. 75% of the sites listed on this watch list have been saved

One thing that can’t be disputed…Route 66 has had a huge impact on travel in the U.S.

FYI...Dana is too young to have actually been a hippie in the 60's...I love when I can pose her.