The Brown House 11/27/2011
 
I went back to Louisiana for Thanksgiving and snapped a few photos of the Brown House. I guess it probably was painted brown at some point, but that was a long, long time ago.
This is the back of the Brown House. The house is mostly used for storage now, a sort of family dumping ground for old furniture and back issues of National Geographic.
Light at the front of the house and some remnants of brown paint.
The electric meter. I'm not sure when this was last connected to power.
The front of the house, home to spiders galore.
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Wetumka 10/28/2011
 
A few weeks ago, I went out to Wetumka on a project. As you probably already know, I'm a sucker for old buildings.
My best guess is that this was some sort of water treatment facility, but I really have no idea.
I liked the colors and contrast of this sink, which was inside the building and up the stairs.
The exterior of the building. No idea what's going on with the architecture here.
And a beautiful sunflower to close out the post. It was growing right outside the building.

On a side note, I love my new (used) camera!
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The other day, I took some photos of the Caddo dance ground. I was helping with a memorial dinner and went up the hill after we'd finished cleaning. 
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This is the Community Building. I've heard that it is the first structure to be built here, well before the tribal complex was established. This is the south end of the building. The north end has bathrooms with showers -- which get a lot of use during the summer camp.
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This is the dance ground, looking northeasterly. This dirt has amazing staining properties. When folks refer to Oklahoma's red dirt, this is what they are talking about.
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Being here when there is no one else around is sort of lonely. Since we haven't had much rain this summer, you can still see the footprints from the last dance (probably the closing dance at this year's Hasinai camp).
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Looking east from the parking lot at the Community Building. You can't help but think of all of the folks who have danced here over the years, who set up camp and cooked over a fire, who visited with family and friends in the shade of the trees.
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When I got back into my car after taking these photos, I had a hitchhiker. 
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A couple of days ago, I loaded up a car and drove around southwestern Oklahoma. Totally work-related. I needed to check out a potential traditional cultural property, to look for a relocated bridge, and to meet with the folks over at the Comanche Nation.
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This is what I got to walk through. Overgrown, and not much to see, except for someone's deer stand. And judging by the poop I spotted in several different places, they picked a good spot for that stand.
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A few flowers were blooming, but begrudgingly. Turns out that there was no traditional cultural property to be found, which is a good thing. There were, however, ticks to be found, not such a good thing.

After leaving the woods, I stopped by Trivets Restaurant in Elgin. If you are ever in the vicinity of Elgin, stop at Trivets and eat some pie. You'll be glad that you did.
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My next stop was the community of Faxon. There's not much to Faxon. I was looking for a relocated historic bridge. This is not the bridge that I was looking for, but I took a picture of it anyway.
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I drove all over town and took pictures of interesting things, like the abandoned playground at the school
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Sort of a bleak beauty to the place.
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This building has obviously seen better days.
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It turned 100 years old last year.
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I know 100 years isn't all that old for a building, but to put that into context, Oklahoma had only been a state for 3 years when this building was constructed.
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Another building up the street was in similar disrepair. At one time, it was a grocery store and filling station, with a staking rink to boot!
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Scenes from the movie Fast Charlie... the Moonbeam Rider, starring David Carradine, were filmed here. Reportedly, that's when "Hotel - Weekly Rates" was painted on the side of the building.
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More recently, someone started to renovate the building into a bar and converted the original windows into wagon wheel portholes. 
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This old gas station was on the other side of Faxon. It reminds me of the a store near where I grew up. The floors were wood, and the soda pops were in chest-style coolers.
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On the way out of town, I came across this building. I really liked the shadows on the wall.

Finally, I made my way to Lawton and had a great (and productive) meeting with my friends over at the Comanche Nation. It's always nice to catch up with them.

And on the way out of Lawton, I stopped for this lovely sign.
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So, there's a day in the life of ODOT's Tribal Liaison -- tromping through the woods, exploring small towns, and meeting with tribal folks. What a great job!
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