Museum of the Great Plains

05/29/2026

Random Film Friday
Ritz Theater, 216 C Avenue, Lawton, Oklahoma, 1941
1979-P70:101, Call’s Studio Collection

05/27/2026

The belt pouch

05/23/2026

Trade day at Coffee’s trading post.

05/22/2026

The bullet or shot pouch went hand in hand with a frontiersman’s rifle during the fur trade period. Slung under the right or left arm he carried the essentials for shooting and maintaining his firearm.

05/22/2026

Random Film Friday
Edna Summers, Bertie Moon, Murray Cartwright, Essie Jones
“Soda fountain in the Peerless Bakery where we worked."
May 25, 1914
Lawton, Oklahoma
1984-P25:37, John O. Moretti Collection

05/19/2026

I was showing people how to play Spanish Monte during my outreach program last week and had a few ask about instructions online. Here is the link from Bents old fort and the national park service. Spanish and Mexican Monte were a popular pastime on the frontier.

https://www.nps.gov/beol/learn/education/spanish-monte-card-game.htm?fbclid=IwRlRTSAR5XRlleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAwzNTA2ODU1MzE3MjgAAR7OBkCocfnxrQXXICt-S3kVr-yo6wYRfzOwC206RGw5nqMXTnF7AagSPpO0_Q_aem_x0r5IDY-N0Ei1ErrQWgBRA

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05/16/2026

05/15/2026

Random Film Friday
Lawton Steam Laundry, 1908
1978-P7:4, Helen Dunn Collection

05/12/2026

The fur press was used at Coffee’s trading post to squeeze down buffalo and beaver hides into compact bundles for transportation back to Ft. Smith in the 1830’s and 1840’s.

05/08/2026

Random Film Friday
Group of people at the entrance gate to the Wichita National Forest and Game Preserve near Cache, Oklahoma, circa 1920.
Photograph by Dr. Joseph Allen Perisho
1973-P5:15, Beth Perisho Pratt Collection

05/06/2026

The fur trade on the Red River.