A 19th-Century New Yorker will be honored in the Green Country on April 18.
An area chapter of the group Daughters of the American Revolution will dedicate a new marker for Washington Irving at Keystone Ancient Forest.
Those who haven't heard the name Washington Irving have almost certainly heard of "Rip van Winkle" (1819) or "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820), the most famous short stories he penned. He's widely cited as the "Father of American Literature."
In fact, Irving wore countless hats: writer, historian, diplomat, adventurer, and copyright law activist.
But why is he being honored in Oklahoma, of all places?
"We have three goals: historic preservation, education, and patriotism," Valerie Judkins told 2 News. She's the regent of the Reverend John Robinson Chapter of DAR.
"With the 250th anniversary of the United States coming up," she explained, "it seems like an appropriate time to honor Washington Irving, who was the first person to write about this area of the country, which was then Indian territory."
Irving was born and raised in Manhattan but spent many years in Europe. Upon returning to his home country, he embarked on a month-long journey beyond what was then considered the Western frontier.
“He was invited by the Indian commissioner to come out here and do a tour with him," said Judkins.
Irving linked up with a band of frontiersmen at Fort Gibson, which is celebrating its 200th birthday this weekend, before heading up the Arkansas River on horseback and making stops along the way.
Irving documented this journey in his book, "A Tour on the Prairies," published in 1835.
Irving did not aim for his book to be a detailed historical record. Rather, in his own words, it was "a simple narrative of every day occurrences; such as happen to every one who travels the prairies," also saying he had "no wonders to describe" and no story to tell.
On Oct. 12, 1832, Irving camped around Bear's Glen, which sits along Keystone Lake. While there, he wrote about the natural beauty of the Keystone Ancient Forest and the Cross Timbers area.
Judkins told us that some of the trees in that forest are 300 to 500 years old, ones that Irving would have gazed at almost two centuries ago.
This DAR chapter will dedicate a new marker for him Thursday morning on the Frank Trail Bluff, which overlooks the Bear's Glen area.
However, it's not the first marker that this DAR chapter has dedicated to Irving. The chapter originally placed a marker on the Keystone Road in November 1956 before Keystone Lake swallowed it up.
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