Former Platt National Park designated Chickasaw National Recreation Area 50 years ago
SULPHUR, Okla. – This year marks a half-century since Platt National Park was designated Chickasaw National Recreation Area (CNRA). The official designation occurred March 17, 1976, with the signature of President Gerald Ford and was the result of years of planning and lobbying by the Chickasaw Nation and residents of Sulphur.
The designation combined Platt National Park with the Arbuckle Recreation Area, the 2,350-acre Lake of the Arbuckles and additional lands to create CNRA. The name honors the Chickasaw people who helped make the original Sulphur Springs Reservation, which was later renamed Platt National Park, possible.
Local efforts to appeal to Congress for the new designation cannot and should not be forgotten, said Chickasaw citizen Bill Wright. Wright served as CNRA superintendent from 2015 to 2022.
Wright said the initiative for the name change was community-based.
“It was a grassroots proposal coming from community leaders — which struck me as not what I had heard all my life. I had heard this was a push on behalf of the park service that the (U.S.) Department of the Interior were the ones really behind it, but that wasn’t the case at all. It really did come from the City of Sulphur.”
Sulphur Times-Democrat publisher Paul John, Sulphur Chamber of Commerce President Bob Cypert and chamber vice president Phil Key were the local delegation who traveled to Washington, D.C., in October 1975 to testify at two U.S. congressional hearings.
Emile Farve, assistant to former Chickasaw Nation Governor Overton James, represented the Chickasaw Nation and testified at both hearings on behalf of the Chickasaw Nation, according to the Nov. 6, 1975, issue of the Sulphur Times-Democrat. Publisher Paul John wrote, “(Farve) made an effective plea to both committees on behalf of the naming of the new Chickasaw National Recreation Area. He did point out, however, that naming of the new area to honor the Chickasaw peoples is a major interest to the Chickasaw Nation.”
Wright said the designation was designed to honor the Chickasaw people who had the foresight and influence to conserve the springs and streams at the turn of the century.
“As the town of Sulphur grew in the early 1900s, so did the threat to the springs. I’ve said this on numerous occasions: it’s all about the water. It really was all about the water. That is why the entire community of Sulphur grew up where it was — because of the water.”
The impetus for protecting the springs came when the Chickasaw Nation recognized there was a danger in how fast the town was growing, Wright said.
Pollution to the water — which was widely used for medicinal therapy at the turn of the century — was a major concern.
“They really wanted to preserve those things that were important, those things that brought them to that location in the first place (after Removal), and that was the springs and the streams. Attempting to get Congress to buy back that land from them, I believe, was a lot of foresight down the road that probably the leaders at the time didn’t even realize exactly how instrumental that was going to be,” he said.
The Chickasaws and Choctaws, in order to preserve the area’s mineral springs, sold 640 acres of land to the federal government in 1902, with the understanding the U.S. government would permanently preserve and protect the property. This created the Sulphur Springs Reservation, which was expanded and renamed Platt National Park. The area has been known as Chickasaw National Recreation Area for a half-century.
The park’s name change had been championed by the Chickasaw people for years before it was deemed official by the federal government.
The March 18, 1976, issue of the Sulphur Times-Democrat reported, “President Ford’s signature would change the name of Platt National Park in Sulphur, to Chickasaw National Recreation Area — a change first encouraged by the leaders of the Chickasaw Nation and spearheaded by Chickasaw Governor Overton James as early as 1967.”
The article, titled “Chickasaw Name to Return to Platt Park – Only President’s Signature Needed,” quotes former Governor James’ response to the bill’s passage by the Senate March 5 and its subsequent journey to the president.
“I am very pleased and very happy that the United States Congress saw fit to honor the Chickasaw people by passing this bill,” Governor James said.
“After leading the effort to get the name changed, I’m very pleased to see it become a reality.”
U.S. Speaker of the House Carl Albert’s staff assistant, Skip Stephens, was also quoted in the article, describing the journey of getting the bill to the president’s desk.
“This office has been in favor of the bill for eight or 10 years,” he said, “and I’ve been working on it myself for about three years.”
Years in the making, legislation to create CNRA had to be passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate before it was sent to the president’s desk. It passed the House unanimously Feb. 2, 1976.
“News of the congressional action was received here with elation,” the Feb. 5, 1976, issue of the Sulphur Times- Democrat reported under the headline, “Legislation Approved for Recreation Area.” Passage of the bill was seen as the first step in the culmination of a number of years of effort and hard work by many individuals on the local scene.”
Former Governor James reported about the park’s name change in his State of the Nation Address printed in the October-December 1976 issue of the Chickasaw Newsletter.
“After almost 10 years of work we were able to get the names of Platt National Park and Arbuckle Recreation Area changed to Chickasaw National Recreation Area to honor the Chickasaw tribe,” he said. “There isn’t a finer nature area in the United States than this park. The National Park Service has been authorized to purchase 1,200 acres between the two areas to make the new park.”
In the past 50 years, CNRA has experienced much progress and improvement, including several projects in partnership with the Chickasaw Nation.
“Looking back with 20/20 hindsight, I think the name change was really brilliant because it set the stage for where we are today, not just locally, but where we are today as a nation and as a tribe. The fact that having Chickasaw attached to the park really demonstrates the importance (of the Chickasaw people) more so than had it remained Platt National Park,” Wright said. “As a Chickasaw entity, it sets the stage for the history and the fact that this was Chickasaw land.”
The Chickasaw Visitor Center, the Inkana (friend) Bridge, Veterans Lake development and the national designation of the Platt Historic District have all occurred in the past few decades.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Platt Historic District was recognized as a National Historic Landmark in 2011 due to the extensive 1930s Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) architecture and landscape.
“I really think we still have one of the largest and best examples of CCC-era construction intact in the park. The work they did here was so extensive; they built almost everything we see today, save Lincoln Bridge,” said Wright. “Even the road layouts were done during the CCC era. That period of time was really important in the development of the park.”
Post World War II brought more campers, and Rock Creek Campground was established. In the 1960s, Lake of the Arbuckles was built, along with surrounding lakeside campsites and changed the profile of the park, said Wright.
“The continual development of the park was (needed) because how people use an area changes over time,” Wright said. “It will be different 50 years from now than it is today.”
Building the Chickasaw Cultural Center, which is adjacent to the park, was also completed in the past few decades, bringing to fruition a dream of Chickasaws years in the making. The Chickasaw Cultural Center has welcomed more than 1 million guests from across the globe since its opening in 2010. The cultural center and CNRA are connected by Inkana (friend) Bridge, a 195-foot pedestrian bridge which features the National Park Service arrowhead and Chickasaw spirals in the tie beams.