Adler's Midwest Meandering Spring 2021

 Our winds settled down overnight, but today we had planned to go on base at Fort Sill Army Base and find three caches there.  We had to go to the visitor center for the base and get a pass, which consisted of showing our driver's license and social security card, and having our mug shot taken.  We each needed to pass clearance.  Once inside we drove all around the base trying to find our geo-cache and we realized that we were on the wrong side of the 310 foot hill in question.  I asked Jim if he thought we were under surveillance this whole time.  How could we be, as we were on a lone, one way 'lane' and we had to turn around.  The first rule of geo-caching is 'Trust Your GPS'!    We finally got on track and were on the correct side of the huge wall.  

This is the entrance to Fort Sill Army Base in Lawton, Oklahoma, and it was established in 1869.  The Indians named it "The Soldier's House at Medicine Bluff".  

The geo-cache took us to this plaque and the background is the 310 foot high wall that rises straight up from the creek below.   It was known to be a famous place for Indian suicides.  The huge fissure in the middle between the two bluffs is known as the Medicine Man's Walk.  

We had to make our way down to the creek for another cache and that was a virtual cache.  There again, nothing is planted but it takes you to a certain place.  It was beautiful down there, although the water was very green!

I think we surprised this young soldier, who was fishing down there and hoping to get his daughter interested in it.  He was from Utah and has been on base here since last fall.  Today was the first that he had been to this particular area..  He is a captain in the army and was in the ROTC program at the University of Utah.

From the creek area we went to the Apache Cemetery, which is also on base.  I will just let you read the pictures as they are worthy of your time. 

There were very few granite tombstones in this cemetery, as most of them were the white markers.  They were the braves who served Geronimo and their wives and children and the family of Geronimo. The huge stone marker is the grave of Geronimo, and the marker on the left is of his daughter, who died at the age of 21, and one of his wives is on the right.  Our very favorite hiking place is in the Chiricahua National Monument in Cochise Co. in southeast Arizona.  We go there every November to hike, and we learned of Geronimo there.  He was quite the savage warrior.  His son, Little Robe is buried in the cemetery at Fort Bowie near the Chiricahua's.  We had heard that when he was captured that he was taken to Florida, but we didn't know that he was brought to Fort Sill until today.  I think this is the longest that we spent on three caches, but we felt it was all worth it.