Lawton, OK

Arrived in Lawton today for a short visit. Anyone in this area, or would like to make a quick trip here, and would like to meet up, shoot me a PM. I'm looking to shoot in Wichita Mountains, both scenics and wildlife, and Medicine Park. Not sure if this is a good time to visit Hackberry Flats.

Ah, Lawton my home for a few months back in 1965! Hope you enjoy it more than I did.

Win wrote in post #14574153
Ah, Lawton my home for a few months back in 1965! Hope you enjoy it more than I did.

Haven't visited Ft Sill yet, but might tomorrow...if they promise not to keep me.

sparker1 wrote in post #14570376
Arrived in Lawton today for a short visit. I'm looking to shoot in Wichita Mountains, both scenics and wildlife .....

I realize this was 7 years ago, but I'm still interested in hearing about your time in the Wichita Mountains; particularly with the wildlife.

I was there this past July, for 3 days, and found so many critters to photograph that I wish I had been able to stay longer. . Hoping that I can get back there this coming May, for a full week.
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sparker1 wrote in post #14570376
..... and Medicine Park. Not sure if this is a good time to visit Hackberry Flats.

Every day on my drive from Lawton to the Wichitas, I saw signs for Medicine Park, but I thought it was a just town. . What is there at Medicine Park, inasmuch as wildlife opportunities are concerned? . I'm also interested in learning about Hackberry Flats and what you found there.


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Yes, Tom, it was seven years ago and I was only 70 years old!!! Memory may have faded a bit since then. I enjoyed the Wichitas, mostly for the rocky terrain and nice views. Medicine Park was interesting to me for the colorful cottages there, and a reservoir with a "waterfall" spillway. Wildlife was limited: some bison, collared lizards, deer, hawks and a few other birds. Hackberry Flat was disappointing, as there was no way to get close to the birds that were there. (I think I only had 400mm then.). There were numerous Mississippi Kites around Medicine Park. I do think June wasn't the best time for birds there. I enjoyed several hikes, since I am into rocks and dirt.

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I'm glad to see that you mentioned Collared Lizards ..... those little guys are spectacular, aren't they?!

They are the reason that I went to Lawton and the Wichitas; everything else was an unexpected bonus.

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I went to high school in Lawton.

You can get pretty damned close to the bison at the wildlife refuge. They might also decide to get close to you.

When my kids were small, I took them to the museum there. When we came out, there was a bison standing right beside the driver's door of our car in the dirt parking lot.

He suddenly decided to take a dust bath right there beside the car. He threw himself down--the thump shook the car--rolled over on his back, and wiggled in the dirt for a minute with his feet straight up in the air.

He got back up--and threw himself down again. The third time he did that, my four-year-old daughter looked at me and asked, "Papa, what are we going to do?"

I said, "We're going to wait until he's done."

First trip to Yellowstone, many years ago, we were driving close to a bison "herd" on the left. My SIL in the passenger seat with the window down, suddenly gasped. She had turned her attention from left to right and found a bison's head inside the upen window. Quite the experience for her.

@Win 1968 for me. I feel your pain

sparker1 wrote in post #18936341
First trip to Yellowstone, many years ago, we were driving close to a bison "herd" on the left. My SIL in the passenger seat with the window down, suddenly gasped. She had turned her attention from left to right and found a bison's head inside the open window. Quite the experience for her.

Like this...(sorry, no details, captured on 35mm film at Mormon Row, Jackson Hole WY)

Ok, so since the lid got kicked off of this thread. There was a restaurant outside of Lawton, I think it's name was "The Old Plantation" or maybe it was "The Plantation House". Whatever. It was the only business in the small outlaying community and the entire community worked there. Kids bussed tables and men and women both cooked and waited on tables. They had one thing (as best as I recall) on the menu....steak and baked potato. The steak was so big that they brought the potato on a separate plate 'cause the steak was already hanging off the edges of a regular-sized dinner plate!!! DELICIOUS!!!! And naturally all the sweet tea you could drink!!!! Dang that was good!!!!

Also, *somewhere* around Lawton there was a strange mountain(?). It looked like a giant had a double handful of giant (REALLY GIANT!!!!) bolders and piled them up in a neat, pointed-top pile. An odd pile of rocks for the old boy from flatland south Alabama. And of course, prairie dog communities...nosier than the ladies' playing bridge on Thursday afternoon...

Intheswamp wrote in post #19134742
Ok, so since the lid got kicked off of this thread. There was a restaurant outside of Lawton, I think it's name was "The Old Plantation" or maybe it was "The Plantation House". Whatever. It was the only business in the small outlaying community and the entire community worked there. Kids bussed tables and men and women both cooked and waited on tables. They had one thing (as best as I recall) on the menu....steak and baked potato. The steak was so big that they brought the potato on a separate plate 'cause the steak was already hanging off the edges of a regular-sized dinner plate!!! DELICIOUS!!!! And naturally all the sweet tea you could drink!!!! Dang that was good!!!!

Also, *somewhere* around Lawton there was a strange mountain(?). It looked like a giant had a double handful of giant (REALLY GIANT!!!!) bolders and piled them up in a neat, pointed-top pile. An odd pile of rocks for the old boy from flatland south Alabama. And of course, prairie dog communities...nosier than the ladies' playing bridge on Thursday afternoon...

Mount Scott. Literally the only mountain in Oklahoma. But it was flat on top.

Oh, and the prairie dog "town" at the Lawton museum. Back when I was a kid, the prairie dog town was small and the prairie dogs were extremely skittish.

When I took my young children there (having not been there in maybe 25 years), we quietly walked out among the burrow holes, and I whispered to the kids, "If you be very still and quiet, you might see one of them poke its head out of a hole."

But as soon as we got out among the holes, little furry heads started popping up all around us. Scores of them...all around us. All...around...us.

Then they started coming out and streaming toward us. Closer, and closer and closer. All...around..us.

My daughter got alarmed and crawled into my arms. My son took a defensive posture. One prairie dog came up and poked my shoe with his nose. I figure in the intervening years, so many people had been feeding them that they'd lost their fear of humans.

<chuckle> Well, it has been right at 35 years ago when I was there. Sure seemed like it was more of a pointed top though...but being from the foothills of the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains I guess most any tall formation larger than a fire ant mound looks pointed.<grin> It amazed me though how those giant boulders just seemed to be piled up out of nowhere....seemed out of place for the terrain.

Thanks for sharing the prairie dog story. I'm sure your kids still remember that encounter. I was actually visiting a buddy stationed at Fort Sill...having just gone through a bad divorce I was on a rode trip of sorts. We didn't venture into the prairie dog town, just a short pause along the way. You are probably spot-on in that the prairie dogs had "learned" that they could get treats from the two-legged giants that came into their town...the downfall of so many wild creatures.

Intheswamp wrote in post #19134742
Ok, so since the lid got kicked off of this thread. There was a restaurant outside of Lawton, I think it's name was "The Old Plantation" or maybe it was "The Plantation House". Whatever. It was the only business in the small outlaying community and the entire community worked there. Kids bussed tables and men and women both cooked and waited on tables. They had one thing (as best as I recall) on the menu....steak and baked potato. The steak was so big that they brought the potato on a separate plate 'cause the steak was already hanging off the edges of a regular-sized dinner plate!!! DELICIOUS!!!! And naturally all the sweet tea you could drink!!!! Dang that was good!!!!

Perhaps this place in Medicine Park OK? !4 miles from Lawton OK.

https://www.theoldplan​tationrestaurant.com/

About the steak, I had a similar experience somewhere way back in the hinterlands of Rhode Island Took a client to dinner, he drove, middle of the night and I didn't pay attention. I never could find the place again and the guy had left the company a short time later. This was long before places like Ruth Chris; I remember the menu describing the cooking process and think I didn't know ovens could get that hot. It was something like 800 deg F for about 2 minutes, then moved to another cooler oven for an additional 10. Awesome piece of meat!

That looks like the place! But, it seems they've either added items to the menu or either all we had our eyes on was red meat when we visited. Quiet a colorful background to it, too!!!!