Historical Marker Program

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96th Parallel

Osage County

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Civilian Conservation Corps and Osage Mountain

Osage County
Location: in Osage Hills State Park
Topics: Early Statehood, 1907–1941; Government; Recreational/Service; Social/Cultural

Men of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built structures and roads in the park in the 1930s.

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James Bigheart

Osage County
Location: north side of SH11, 1/2 mile east of the Bird Creek Bridge east of Barnsdall
Material: Aluminum
Topics: American Indians; Indian and Frontier Trade; Natural Resources; Territorial Period, 1861–1907

After the Civil War, Bigheart became chief of the Osage. He operated a trading post at Big Heart, now Barnsdall, and led his people to retain all mineral rights to their lands which brought great wealth to the Osage people.

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Osage Chief Fred Lookout

Osage County
Location: east of Pawhuska on Lookout Mountain
Topics: American Indians; Government; Industrial Period, 1941–1982; Territorial Period, 1861–1907

Fred Lookout was the last hereditary chief of the Osage. After being educated in the East, he returned to the Osage Nation in 1884. He served as the leader of his people longer than anyone. He died in 1949 at the age of ninety-eight. His wife, Julia, was a descendant of Chief Pawhuska.

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Osage Hills

Osage County
Location: on US-60 between Pawhuska and Bartlesville
Topics: American Indians; Environmental/Cultural Ecology; Natural Resources; Ranching

First settled by the Osage Indians in 1796, the area is now part of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, a protected remnant of the original North American prairie, a 500-mile wide stretch of land in the central part of the United States that extended from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. The tallgrass prairie exists today only in those areas which are not tillable or have soils not conducive to farming. Rich grasses in the prairie have sustained cattle-grazing operations since the 1880s.

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Osage Hills State Park

Osage County
Location: on US-60 northeast of Pawhuska
Topics: Early Statehood, 1907–1941; Government; Natural Resources; Recreational/Service; Social/Cultural

The Osage Hills State Park, built by Civilian Conservation Corps Company 895 from 1936 to 1939, is centrally located in the lush, rolling hills and a densely wooded canyon between Pawhuska and Bartlesville.

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Skiatook

Osage County
Location: on OK-11 and OK-20 in Skiatook
Material: Granite
Topics: American Indians; Government; Indian and Frontier Trade; Mass Communication; Territorial Period, 1861–1907

W. C. Rogers, later a chief of the Cherokee Nation, established a trading post near here in 1872. A post office was opened in Rogers' store on March 12, 1880. The name comes from Skiatooka, a prominent Osage who traded in Rogers' store.

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St. John’s School for Osage Indian Boys

Osage County
Location: at intersection of OK-20 and County Road 5715, eleven miles west of Hominy
Coordinates: 36.45486, -96.58766
Material: Granite
Sponsor(s): Reverend James D. White
Topics: American Indians; Education; Religion/Philosophy; Territorial Period, 1861–1907

This Osage boys school was founded by the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions in 1888 on the banks of Hominy Creek. A four-story stone building was erected in 1893 to replace the original log school. The school closed in 1913 but the buildings were maintained until the 1950s, when they were torn down.

Note: This marker no longer exists.

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Wynona

Osage County
Location: on OK-99, eight miles south of Pawhuska
Topics: Government; Mass Communication; Territorial Period, 1861–1907

Post office was established in 1903 in Wynona, a Sioux word meaning “first-born daughter.”