McAlester, Oklahoma

Hi everybody! Penny here, filling in another post from our vacation over the summer! This one is kind of weird, but since we spent like a whole day on this we thought we'd go ahead and do the post anyway.

From a long, long time ago, my cousin Wrennie did a post about road side attractions. You might remember that we saw the biggest lump of coal, a fallout shelter, and a story about Prisoners of War and a castle they built. Well, that town was McAlester, and we were really there because... well, right here! The Oklahoma State Penetentiary is there! Now, that's not something we would really get to go into, but they were supposed to have a museum about the prison nearby with the actual electric chair (which isn't used anymore) and we really like museums so we wanted to check this one out.

We didn't get to see it, though, because I guess they were moving it but the website wasn't updated yet. We went to where it showed on google maps and it was the right building and everything but it was totally empty. It was also right on the prison grounds, so we got some pictures of it. We didn't get any pictures of my favorite road sign, which said "hitchhikers may be escaped convicts!"
That was a bit of a bummer. -Wrennie
Yeah, but the prison was huge and seeing it was cool! -Chloe

McAlester has kind of a weird story connected to it, so I thought I'd tell that story. The town was named after and founded by a man named JJ McAlester, who was a Confederate Army soldier, the second lieutenant governor of Oklahoma, owner of a coal mine and a general store, AND a character in True Grit. 

We also visited a Civil War cemetery, which I will be writing about very soon. - Callie
We're not allowed to watch that movie yet! -Chloe 

McAlester the town is also mentioned in The Grapes of Wrath (which I haven't gotten to read yet but that I will eventually)! They have a prison rodeo every year. One day I want to go to that. In the meantime though, we just got to see this statue of a man in prison stripes riding a bull.
I tried so hard to get a good picture of that guy! - Wrennie

Back to that story... so JJ McAlester was probably not what people would think of when they think of a good man. McAlester is built on a coal-rich area but it's also right in the middle of "Indian Territory," which is land given to Native Americans. Mr. McAlester had heard about the coal rumors and he wanted the land, so he went and married a Chickasaw lady, which meant that he was legally allowed to own land that didn't REALLY belong to him.
Not cool man! -Chloe

To make matters even worse, when he started hiring people to work in his coal mines, he mostly picked immigrants. He ran a general store on land right nearby the prison, and he made it so that the miners mostly only got paid in credit that they could use JUST in the store that he owned. He actually was one of the primary founders of the coal industry in Oklahoma!

I don't think I'm a huge fan of the coal industry, personally. -Callie

You wouldn't know by looking at it now that McAlester was founded basically on stealing and unpaid labor. Mr. McAlester's house (which we didn't visit this time) is still on the national historic register.
Maybe next time! -Wrennie

Sorry for the short and kind of unremarkable entry! We spent most of the day in this town and wanted to quickly tell its story even though we didn't do a lot! Til next time!

-Penny 

*Disclaimer: the story told here in this entry was not fact checked for strict accuracy; it was told to us by someone who has lived here for his whole life and that's the way he learned it. To preserve the feelings we had when we heard the story, we've left it the way it is. If you'd like further links on McAlester or anyone mentioned here, please drop us a line and we'll be happy to oblige.