Optima, Oklahoma -- It's Out There

Optima is in Texas County, the middle county of the Oklahoma Panhandle. Cimarron County is to the west, and Beaver County to the east. The Panhandle is 166 miles wide and keeps Texas from bordering on Colorado and Kansas.

History of the Oklahoma Panhandle is tied in with the history of Texas. At one time, that part of the country was part of the Republic of Texas, although Mexico, loser of the Texas Revolution, refused to recognize what the Texicans said. When Texas agreed to become part of the United States, the Lone Star Republic gave up its claim to what are now parts of the states of Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado and a small part of Utah.

Optima has a Lincoln Street and a Jefferson Street.

The city’s 2010 population was 356, the highest ever. The Census Bureau says the population is demographed at 79.32% white, 0.74% African-American, 0.38% Native American, 0.75% Asian, 13.53% Other Races, 5.26% of Two or More races, and 48.12% Hispanic or Latino of any race.

It’s always a good thing to know, that Americans are judged by the content of their character, and not by the color of their skin.

Optima Lake has a dam, but sometimes no water.

“Optima Lake is located in the panhandle of Oklahoma in Texas County on the Beaver River, approximately 4 1/2 miles northeast of Hardesty, and 20 miles east of Guymon. All public use areas around the lake are accessible as points. The water level in the lake has never reached normal pool. Visitors should be aware that the lake's level can be very low. Depending on rainfall and evaporation rates, the lake may offer no water-based recreation and may not be suitable for swimming, fishing, boating or other activities. Visitors should come for the quiet natural setting -- with or without water in the lake area. There is approximately 3400 acres of land public hunting land managed by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, and approximately 4300 acres of Federal Wildlife Refuge. The primary species available are quail, deer, dove, pheasant, and turkey. The public hunting area is open year round, and is governed by Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation regulations.”

https://www.travelok.com/listings/view.profile/id.5580

If you search “images optima ok lake,” you will find more than a few photographs of those “natural settings – with or without water in the lake area.”

That means, “The lake be dry.”

Optima is probably an OK place to live. It is Out There, which oftentimes is a good place.

Beaver, Oklahoma

Beaver is in Beaver County in the Oklahoma Panhandle. The Panhandle is three counties long and separates Kansas from Texas. Beaver is also the county seat.

The town’s population was 1,515 by 2010 census figures. About 6.8% of families and 10.2% of the population were below the poverty line.

Beaver’s greatest population was 2,087, in 1960. The smallest population was 112 in 1900.

Each April, Beaver hosts the World Cow Chip Throwing Contest.

The Jones and Plummer Trail Museum is in Beaver. The museum “offers a glimpse into early day Beaver Country and the beginnings of the town through displays of historical artifacts and prototype rooms.”

http://www.travelok.com/listings/view.profile/id.4038

(I’m not sure what a “prototype room” is. More than likely, it is a room made up as an example of how people’s houses looked long ago. I’d expect people writing a tourist publication to do better than “prototype room.”)

The Jones and Plummer Trail was a route laid out from Dodge City, Kans., to Texas and originally carried buffalo hides.

“The Jones and Plummer Trail was established in the fall of 1874, when two former buffalo hunters turned merchants and freighters, Charles Edward (Dirty Face) Jones and Joseph H. Plummer,qqvestablished a store at the head of Wolf Creek. They had seen the need for a convenient place for buffalo hunters to sell hides and obtain supplies after Quanah Parker's raid had convinced the Dodge City merchants to abandon the Adobe Walls trading post. Jones marked the trail, and the partners' trips to and from Dodge City to deliver hides and buffalo meat and to purchase goods cut ruts into the sod deep enough for others to follow.”

https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/exj01

And:

“In the 1870s and 1880s the nation's pressure to expand the West created a recognizable region that included the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles and southwestern Kansas, best described as a ragged, imperfect triangle with Dodge City the hub and anchor. The Jones and Plummer Trail was founded by hunters Charles Edward "Dirty Face" Jones and Joe H. Plummer. They formed a short-lived partnership and opened a dugout store at the mouth of Wolf Creek in the Texas Panhandle, between Dodge City and Mobeetie, Texas. Jones staked a trail to both locations for his own use, but it was open to all comers.

“Known from the beginning as the Jones and Plummer Trail, the route stretched 168 miles from Dodge City to Mobeetie. The trail crossed the Cimarron River at Miles Landing, located east of present State Highway 23 in Meade County, Kansas, before entering the Oklahoma Panhandle. The trail then ran south-southwest to the site of present Beaver and forded the Beaver (North Canadian) River. Continuing south, the trail entered the Texas Panhandle north of Booker.”

http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=JO017

Here is a link to a satellite image of the Beaver area:

https://www.google.com/maps/@36.8080076,-100.5143081,2248m/data=!3m1!1e3