Wouldn’t you know it? On the weekend I planned to take my overnight ride to Monte Ne, the resort that served as the Ground Zero for the Ozark Trail, rain moved in and the temperature dropped into the low 40s. On top of that my daughter and son-in-law came in from Iowa for homecoming at Oklahoma State.
No worries. I wore an extra layer. Had homemade chili with the kids in Stillwater. Here they are.
Then headed east on OK 51 and connected with Scenic 412 to Arkansas via Avery Drive and old Route 66.
The Avery name is important to the Ozark Trail. Before he became the “Father of Route 66”, Cyrus Avery served as vice president of the Ozark Trail Association. During the late 1910s and early 1920s he also served as a state highway commissioner in Oklahoma, a member of the American Association of State Highway Officials and president of the Associated Highways Association of America. This long list of credentials helped get Avery appointed to the 21 member committee that set up the numbered highway system. No wonder large sections of the Ozark Trail were incorporated into Route 66.
I had thought about searching for the supposed Yale obelisk that the Lincoln County Sheriff Deputy had told me about. But I’d spent more time than I’d planned talking with my daughter and son-in-law and it was cloudy and cold and I was concerned about making it to my campsite before dark. So I pressed on to Tulsa.
I should have taken the original alignment which would have been along the original track of the Ozark Trail, but the siren song of Route 66 often pulls me off track. I used to scoff at those who romanticized the “Mother Road”. But spend a little time on it and the concrete and steel become like flesh and bone and we travelers are its life blood. See what I mean? I don’t usually talk like that. Besides, had I taken the original alignment, I wouldn’t have found Talley’s Café.
Like I said, it was cold, cloudy and getting dark. So I made a note to stop at Tally’s on the way home and continued to press on to Arkansas hoping to set camp before dark.
But didn’t quite make it. I finished setting camp after dark and headed for the Monte Ne Inn for some fried chicken.
I’ve always been told that hunger is the best sauce, but I’ve never had better bean soup, cole slaw and fried chicken. In fact, next time I won’t bother eating the corn, green beans or mashed potatoes just to save room for more of the best fried chicken in the world!
As I was paying I asked the proprietor how to get to the old Monte Ne ruins. He showed me some old photos of the resort during its prime and told me how to find the ruins. I headed back to camp. It was a cold night. But I had a warm sleeping bag.
Next morning I realized where I’d set up camp
on a playground!
It was a bright sunny morning and the ride on the curvy road from Horseshoe Bend Campground was much more enjoyable in the daylight than it was the dark, cloudy night before. And the Ozarks were just starting to show their fall colors.
It amazed me how the tower of Oklahoma Row at Monte Ne was invisible from the road and yet so easy to find. Thanks, no doubt, to the good instructions I got the night before at the Monte Ne Inn. This is the tower of Oklahoma Row. It stood at one end of one of two large lodges made of logs.
The log portion has been moved nearly a mile west on Highway 94 and still stands.
One hundred years ago other visitors looked out this same window of the tower at the Arkansas forest.
I wandered around the ruins.
After about an hour I headed back to Oklahoma.
With the sun out and the temperature rising into the 60s I took time to stop for photos on the way back.
I’m certain this stretch of Scenic 412 was once a part of the Ozark Trail, but I haven’t been able to document it anywhere. The winding curves and occasional tourist courts like this one in Locust Grove have the feel of the old road.
But once you join US 412 the curves give way to straight away. It was good to leave that straightness of US412 and rejoin old 66 in Tulsa. This time I stopped at Talley’s.
The cheeseburger and fries were average, but the waitress was attentive and the décor was straight out of the 1960s.
Today I’m riding a Ninja time machine. This morning it carried me a hundred years back to Monte Ne. Now we’ve made it back to mid century at Talley’s! And by the time I get home, I’ll be back in the present.
The sun was warm and the sky clear, so on the way back to Oklahoma City I turned off at every sign that said “Old Hwy 66” hoping to find more of the Ozark Trail.
Between Luther and Arcadia I stop to take a photo of an old, abandoned gas station I’d passed many times.
The owners of the land it’s on have put up a history of the building indicating it was built prior to 1920, thus an original structure on the Ozark Trail.
What I Learned
In the past roads connected communities and people. Today, old roads can connect us to the past. We don't always know where the roads we travel will lead us. So, it's nice, every once in a while, to look back at the road that brought us to where we are.
Where Next?
Though I want to head for the Texas Panhandle to see the four obelisk’s, the days are shorter and the weather’s turning colder. So I’ll stay closer to home. I’ve seen references to parts of the original trail between Anadarko and Hobart, Oklahoma. And there’s an Ozark Trail Motel and Restaurant in Fletcher, Oklahoma. All in the same general area. A good day trip out of Oklahoma City. And there’s always that rumored EIGHTH OBELISK somewhere near Yale, OK . . .
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