Rosemary Durham

Where Indians, Outlaws & Oilmen Were Real Rosemary Durham

Something happens between man and the land. You cannot say the same thing about a house, a home, an apartment, a high-rise, an office, or a warehouse. It is the dirt of Creation that touches the soul. Such is the story of the land. The vegetation called the Cross Timbers forms a sliver of undergrowth from Kansas to Texas. North of the Arkansas River is less rocky, resulting in huge grasslands which include the Tall Grass Prairie. South of the river is a thicket dominated by post oak, black jack oak, and black hickory. Undergrowth is the ubiquitous sumac with greenbrier, and plum. Into this rugged environment came the Spanish, then French explorers to meet the Caddo speaking tribes south of the Arkansas River. But the fur-traders were the first European settlers at the confluence of the Arkansas, Verdigris, and Grand Rivers in a place they called Three Forks, tagged as the Cradle of Oklahoma History. Across the river, wild west history came alive at Ft. Gibson. The forced removal of all identified Native Americans from east of the Mississippi brought the Five Civilized Tribes into our neighborhood. Numerous stories from old timers, whose family were original settlers, explained the larger cave on the ranch was a hideout for outlaws from the heyday of train and bank robberies. Travel by horse and mule made the 'mountain' more accessible to those interlopers than the present road system for automobiles. This is the story of those intrepid spirits who were the soldiers, Indians, cowboys, outlaws, lawmen, treasure hunters, railroaders, oilmen, drug-runners, and adjacent house of ill repute, that gave way to Dream Point Ranch where elegance is grounded in the peace of nature.