Chickasaw National Recreation Center
                                                 
The first and only national park in Oklahoma occupies land that people
have frequented for thousands of years. The sulfur and fresh water
springs that bubbled above the ground through travertine rock provided
healing and regenerative powers. The springs also lie in an area that
transitions from thick, lush forest to scrubby prairie and sparse timbers. In
a show of foresight and good relations, the Chickasaws and the national
government recognized the uniqueness of this place, and it was
designated a park in 1906.

From early on, both native people and American settlers enjoyed the
waters. By the 1890s, the town of Sulphur Springs [sic] grew up around
the springs, and business people hoped to create a recreational hub for
folks from all over, not unlike Hot Springs, Arkansas. The Chickasaws, who
owned the land, feared that the springs and their surroundings would
lose their specialness if development went overboard (a very astute
observation!). The tribal council thus signed this 640 acre tract over to the
United States government to be preserved in perpetuity.

Sulphur Springs, which at that time had hotels, banks, stores, and dozens
of residences, had to move off the land. At first, Platt National Park -
named after Senator Orville Hitchcock Platt, who championed the park-
only held Pavilion Springs, where the water smelled like sulfur. The
Civilian Conservation Corps further added improvements, such as
bridges and way stations. In 1976, two other "fresh" springs were added
to the park -  Antelope and Buffalo Springs - along with Travertine Creek,
a small, pristinely clear, spring fed river. The park was then renamed to
the Chickasaw National Recreation Area, where it not only preserves the
natural beauty of the springs but the historical significance of Depression
era public works as well.
Evidence of the
Civilian
Conservation
Corps
Travertine Creek
Natural spring bubbles
Original sulphur springs in the middle of what used to be
the town of Sulphur Springs.
First Presbyterian Church, Sulphur
CCC bridge
My son David enjoyed playing at the Little
Niagara Water Falls.
Buffalo Springs. The CCC went a little crazy here. I've never seen so much rock in one place.
The Red River
Valley's Very Own
National Park