During Nuttall’s sojourn in the Red River Valley, he mentions but did not visit a salt spring on the Kiamichi: “In a northern bend of the Kiamesha, about 30 miles from its mouth, I am informed, there exists a very…
By Jona Tucker On January 1st, 1819 Thomas Nuttall was just above present-day Memphis, proceeding slowly down the Mississippi River by boat. No mention of black-eyed peas, champagne, or even an expression of, “Happy New Year!” (When did that become…
Greetings Nuttall-ites! Happy New Year! As our calendar turns in a couple of days to 2019, we enter the actual 200-year anniversary of Nuttall’s journey in the Arkansas territory. On this day, Dec. 30, 1818, Nuttall was still on the…
Jona Tucker will kick off 2019 with a presentation about Thomas Nuttall on January 3 in Oklahoma City for the Oklahoma Native Plant Society. Everyone is invited. The meeting will be held in…
By Jona Tucker Albert Bierstadt wasn’t born when Thomas Nuttall traveled into what became Arkansas and Oklahoma in 1819, but the Gilcrease Museum’s exhibition Albert Bierstadt: Witness to a Changing West currently on display in Tulsa (through February 10) is a great place…
Buffalo (bison) are regularly noted in eastern Oklahoma by Nuttall. He sometimes notes he is following a buffalo trail and at other times someone he’s with may find a buffalo and kill it to eat. Nuttall never describes large numbers…
From Tamara Pittman, via Facebook: Hi, I was wondering if anyone in this group has come across mention of bald cypress in Oklahoma in Nuttall’s journals. Several of our lakes have stands of cypress scattered throughout inaccessible areas, which certainly…
We were pleased to have both Oklahoma Master Naturalists and Oklahoma Native Plant Society members with us on our 2018 tour retracing Nuttall’s path from Fort Smith through the Poteau River valley. Now Master Naturalist Robert Theimer has published an…
I just did a post on the Cherokee Cane Initiative Facebook group page about Nuttall and cane and I want to share some of what I wrote there with you. (You can read the Facebook post here: ) Nuttall’s observations…
On April 29, 1819, a few days after his arrival at Fort Smith, Nuttall “took an agreeable walk into the adjoining prairie, which is about two miles wide and seven long.” This was Massard Prairie, though not named as such…
