Not in Our Town!

Bartlesville, OK
Riverside RV Resort and Campground

We awoke this morning to cloudy skies and cool temperatures.  It also rained a little last night.  Do you want to know why?

This is what the truck looked like when we rode down to Branson yesterday.

This is why it rained overnight.  Bill cleaned the truck when we returned from Branson.

Today we were headed across US 60 to Bartlesville.  When we arrived in Joplin I was looking at the atlas and realized Coffeyville wouldn't be far out of our way.  No problem we just headed to Hwy 166 in Kansas.

The nice thing about Coffeyville, is you can park an RV just about anywhere in town.  In case you don't know why Coffeyville is famous, I suggest you visit the Dalton Defenders Museum.  

We visited about six years ago.  It's still $5.00 admission. A video said "Coffeyville is probably the first city to fight terrorism."  The town slogan is "Not in Our Town."

It is amazing how many artifacts were collected.

Bob and Emmet Dalton robbed the First National bank, while Grat Dalton, Bill Power and Dick Broadwell robbed the Condon Bank simultaneously.

The citizens of Coffeyvile received guns and ammo from Isham's Hardware when they recognized the disguised Dalton gang and a gun battle ensued.  Four outlaws were killed and Emmett Dalton was injured with 23 bulletholes. 

Four Coffeyville citizens were killed and three others were injured.  

This was one of the original Dalton's rifles.

It was said that the town folks all tried to get souvenirs of the gang and therefore lots of artifacts were saved.  

It's a great little museum, but they really aren't taking care to preserve the artifacts.  

This mural wasn't here the last time we visited.

I'm not sure the why the water in the fountain in front of the Condon Bank was red.  You can tour the bank free when the chamber of commerce is open.

This painting is on the wall and sidewalk by the bank.

We knew we had some miles to go to reach our destination so we headed down the road.  

Once we were unhitched, we decided to drive the 4 miles out of town to Dewey where the Tom Mix Museum was located.  I knew it closed at 4:30 but I figured it wouldn't take us long to see it since admission was $3.00.  You don't get much for a three dollar admission these days.  Boy, was I wrong.  

 The first thing we saw when we entered was a life size replica of Tony, Tom's horse.  It had the original silver decorated saddle.  

Tom Mix was killed near Florence, Arizona--the county that we live in.  Naturally, we've been there but it's been so long ago I don't remember the story of him dying in the crash from being hit in the head from his suitcase.  

This is a great collection and naturally Bill showed me a rifle that was like one his Dad gave him.  Bill's Dad wouldn't let him have a BB gun because they were dangerous.  Instead he gave him a 22 rifle which he said was safer.  

I thought this was an interesting Cossack saddle from Russia.  

I didn't get any photos of the Ralston cereal display.  Bill said he used to eat the cereal and hated it, but Tom Mix had the Ralston Straight Shooters radio show.

Tom Mix had four horses in his 25 year career--Old Blue, Tony Sr., Tony Jr. and Tony II.  Tony Sr was the Wonder Horse and he could understand 500 words.

If you click on the above photos to enlarge them, it will tell you how the small town of Dewey with less than 4,000 residents obtained the artifacts.  

Right across the street is the Dewey Hotel.

Unfortunately, we spent so much time in the Tom Mix musuem that when we left it the Hotel Museum was closed.

The jail out back was still open.

Across the street was the original Jake Bartles water well where Tom's horse took a drink.

I must say I learned a lot about Tom Mix.  He was in over 300 movies during his 50 year lifetime.  He was in the Rough Riders.  He did all of his stunts, trained the horses, owned and ran a circus, and gave true meaning to the good guy in a white hat.  

Looking at all the things in town to see tomorrow we decided to visit the oil well since it is was in Johnstone Park and they were open until dusk.  

This plaque explained how the Nellie Johnstone No. 1 worked.  

It was a long busy day.  By the time we returned to the RV park, it was getting dark.  

I need to re evaluate our plans for Fort Supply.  The Corp of Engineer park where we planned to stay is closed for the season.  

Turtle Safely........