Chickasaw National Recreation Area - Sulphur

Address:	901 W. 1st Street, Sulphur, Oklahoma	County:	Murray
Started:	May 1933	Completed:	June 1940
Agencies:	CCC	NRHP :	7/7/2011

Current Usage:

National Recreation Area

Description:

Initial this National Park was name after the Senator that sponsored the legislation to establish it as Sulphur Springs Reservation. In 1902 the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations sold the springs and a 640-acre buffer to the Department of Interior for the sole purpose of preserving the springs since the unique natural and mineral resources with in the area was known to had medicinal qualities. In 1906 the reservation boundaries were expanded and the name changed to Platt National Park in remembrance of Senator Platt. Situated in east of the Arbuckle Mountains in southeast Oklahoma near the town of Sulphur the park’s area now covers more then 10,000 acres when in 1976 Platt National Park and Arbuckle Recreation Area was combined and renamed Chickasaw National Recreation Area.

What is most interesting about this National Park is that it is the only National Park in the service that was original given to the United States by Native Americans for a preservation area. During early 1900s the town of Sulphur grew mostly due to the springs and economic development of hotels and bathhouses, become a early destination spot for vacationers prior to vacations being a part of the working force. Due to this increase of economic development the Chickasaws and Choctaw, who believe the springs and surrounding area was a medicinal location, agreed to secede the original 640-acres around the springs under an act of Congress that was signed on July 1, 1902 (32 Stat. 641, 655). After the signing of the act, the Secretary of Interior commission a geologist to make surveys while the allotted acreage and to plat a new township north of the land to preserve the acreage as a park. After the new town was platted and money was supply to move the town of Sulphur it was said to become a town on wheels overnight with residences, cafes, grocery stores, dance pavilions, post office and hotels all moving to the new town location. It was also reported that one large $50,000 hotel was dismantled and moved.

On June 29,1906 the Secretary of Interior was authorized by Congress to change the name of Sulphur Springs Reservation to Platt National Park in honor of Orville Hitchcock Platt who had recently deceased. Orville Platt was a Senator from Connecticut who had server on the Committee on Indian Affairs and was said “that no other member of Congress knew as much about the Indians as he.” It was Senator Platt that knew of the importance of the springs both as a medicinal and Indian scared place, and that plans were to commercialized the springs thus he spearheaded to movement in Congress to create Sulphur Springs Reservation. Platt National Park became the 7^th National Park to be established. The Lincoln Bridge although looks to have been constructed by CCC or WPA was not and was originally dedicated February 12^th 1909.

Most of the New Deal funded projects within the park were conducted by the CCC when Company 808 was assigned to the location in May 1933. Although the landscaping and construction projects that the Company accomplished was exemplary, the development of those young men was the outstanding part of the program. Enrollee Jay Pinkston remembered working “harder in Platt National Park than I ever worked for any contractor or expected to”. During the seven years that the unit was located in the park they transplanted and planet more than 800,000 trees, shrubs, and vines to reforest certain areas. They also constructed trails from Buffalo and Antelope springs in the east and Bromide Springs in the west, this was a five-mile trail and followed the creek throughout the park. They constructed a new utility area, additions and remodeling of the administration building, comfort stations, reworked campgrounds, installed 205 fireplaces and picnic tables. The pavilion in Flower park was reconstructed as a comfort station. The relationship between the Company and the town of Sulphur had grown so much that by June 1940, when the company was reassigned to Rocky Mountain National Park, “a feeling like that accompanying an irreparable loss settled on the community” was reported. The National Parks Service website says it best about the CCC’s contribution to the park “Although the Platt Historic District’s landscape features—stone bridges and culverts, scenic vistas, rustic buildings constructed of native limestone, and plantings of cedars and wildflowers—are important individually, together they compose a cohesive and seemingly natural recreational environment. Thus, the CCC design of Platt National Park transformed an eroded resort landscape into a holistic place of great beauty, whose enduring recreational and scenic values visitors still experience and appreciate today.”