Day of Exploring and Moving On--April 30, 2010

Friday we took the time to explore this section of Oklahoma through caching. After an early start (9:30) we set off to find the Red Rock Run which was a series of 78 caches on the road to Red Rock Canyon State Park. We found all but one! Also along the way, we picked up three more finds so we beat our personal best in caching with 80 finds for the day.

We saw some interesting sights on our drive to Red Rock. City of El Reno Municipal Air Park was used by the Army Air Corps until 1945.
Another cache was located near an oil drilling rig.Along the way we saw wheat and alfalfa fields.
Red Rock Canyon State Park is located in Hinton, OK. Driving by the area you would never know that there was a canyon nearby. Most of the countryside was flat with a few gently rolling hills.
On the way back to the rv we stopped at historic Ft. Reno just outside the city limits of El Reno. Ft. Reno was established in 1874 as military camp. It became a military post in 1876. Some of the buildings have been renovated. The chapel was one. And yes, there was supposed to be a geocache near the chapel, but we couldn't find it.
Other buildings are in the process of being renovated. Most of those were officers' houses.

In its last days as a military post, Ft. Reno was a remount depot. Mules and horses were raised. One famous horse raised was Black Jack--the riderless horse in the funeral processions of JFK, MacArthur, and LBJ.

During WWII, Ft. Reno was a prisoner of war camp for Germans captured in North Africa. Many of the POWs were hired by local farmers to work in their fields. Some built the chapel at Ft. Reno. The military cemetery has the remains of sixty-one German POWs from camps in Oklahoma and eight Italian POWs from the camp in Hereford, TX.

Saturday is a travel day. As I write this, we are traveling I40 west toward Amarillo. We should be in El Paso Monday.