Visit the Wichita Mountains · Fort Sill (by WMVL)

Name: Visit the Wichita Mountains · Fort Sill (by WMVL)
Address: 36 Ketch Creek Place, Medicine Park, OK, 73507, US
Telephone: +15712285074
Price range: $$

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Visit the Wichita Mountains · Fort Sill (by WMVL)

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Explore the Wichita Mountains, Ft Sill, Lawton. Amazing landscape, sunsets, wildlife, hiking, history. We don't host, sponsor, or profit from events, festivals

festivals, Western & Native American Culture, live music, water sports, fishing & hunting. The Wichita Mountains Lodge management is a resource to the community, families, guests, travelers, businesses, and groups interested in or living near the Wichita Mountains, Fort Sill, and Southwestern Oklahoma. We provide information about area sites, events, activities, entertainment, festivals, and businesses. Call us when you are ready to plan your trip. We understand you don’t visit our area to stay at the Wichita Mountains Lodge properties or another Airbnb. You visit to have great times with your family and see unique and unusual sites, wildlife, or area features you can’t have or see anywhere else. The correct information to achieve this goal is how we can best support your “why” for visiting us. This site provides tourism and travel information for the public. We do not profit from, sponsor, nor are we affiliated with the festivals, events, entertainment, and sites of the area in anyway. Call me to learn more at 571.228.5074.

10/30/2026

Did you know about the Lawton Municiple Golf course?

Looking for an outdoor sport to help you relax, give them a call and get registered!

10/29/2026

It was one of America's wildest gold rushes, and almost nobody remembers it. ⛏️

The answer? Almost none.

For centuries, stories had been told about gold hidden in Oklahoma's Wichita Mountains. Spanish explorers came searching in the 1600s, and tales of lost Spanish and Mexican mines were passed down for generations.

Then, in 1901, the land opened to settlement, and gold fever exploded. Between 2,000 and 3,000 miners poured into the mountains, sure they were about to strike it rich.

Boomtowns appeared almost overnight, with names like Golden Pass, Poverty Gulch and Meers. Meers grew to around 300 people and became one of the most advanced mining camps in the range.

Between 1901 and 1904, about 2,500 mine shafts were dug into these mountains.

And still, the gold never came. After about ten years of digging, very little had ever been found. Some joked that more investors had been mined than gold.

One by one, the boomtowns faded away. Today, the Wichita Mountains are quiet again, but the old legends of hidden gold have never completely disappeared.

If you'd lived in 1901, would you have gone looking for gold?

10/29/2026

The satisfaction of the Burford lake trail hike is in this point when you see this hidden lake.

The satisfaction is next to none

10/29/2026

Is this Oklahoma’s most iconic roadside restaurant? Many would say yes.

Tucked away in the tiny town of Meers, this historic restaurant has become a destination in its own right. For decades, travelers, hikers, motorcyclists, and families have made the drive here—not just for the legendary Meersburger, but for the experience of visiting one of Southwest Oklahoma’s most well-known roadside stops.

Just minutes from the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, it’s the perfect place to refuel after a day of exploring scenic trails, spotting bison, or taking in the mountain views. It’s one of those places where the journey is just as memorable as the meal.

Whether you’ve been coming here for years or it’s still on your bucket list, Meers is proof that some of the best road trip memories begin in the smallest towns.

Now we want to know… how far would you drive for an unforgettable burger? Tell us in the comments! 🍔👇

10/29/2026

On the 1870s frontier, a laundress at Fort Sill could earn twice what a private did. 🧺

At Fort Sill, the company laundresses were the only women who received any legal recognition within the military hierarchy. In return for washing the soldiers’ clothes, they received quarters, fuel, one daily ration and the services of the post surgeon, and the Army allowed about one laundress for every 19½ men. A private earned $13 a month, while a laundress could take in $25 to $30.

Before 1874, Fort Sill’s laundresses lived in a cluster of huts, tents, picket houses and dugouts on the south edge of the post, known as “Sudsville” or “Suds Row.” Then the quartermaster’s post laundry replaced these hard-working women on the frontier.

👇 Did you know the Army once paid its laundresses more than its privates?

10/29/2026

The man who built this resort town sold it for $16,000 in 1914. Then he got it back. 🌊

Elmer Thomas opened the Medicine Park Summer Resort and Health Spa in the summer of 1908, less than a year after Oklahoma became a state. The Plains Indian residents knew the creek had healing qualities, and the “Queen of the Southwest” grew fast. Medicine Creek was dammed to create two lakes: Bath Lake for swimming, and Lake Gondola, named with the Italian word for a long, narrow boat, for fishing and boating.

In 1914, Thomas sold the village to a company from Oklahoma City for $16,000. Then the loan went into default, and Thomas and his partner took the cobblestone community back. Over the years, as his political career took him to Washington, D.C., he spent less time in Medicine Park, and the resort slowly turned into a town.

At its peak, it drew more than 200,000 visitors a year, most of them from Texas. In 1939, a new owner added a small zoo with monkeys and bears, a skating rink, and a slide and swinging bridge at the lakes.

👇 Would you have sold? Tell us in the comments.

10/29/2026

What do you know about the Comanche Nation Fair?

10/28/2026

Before you answer, you should probably hear the stories. 👻

Medicine Park has been called haunted for decades. Some say ghosts of past residents still linger at The Old Plantation. Others believe Western swing star Bob Wills still haunts the old music hall.

The Southwest Oklahoma Ghost Chasers and the Native American Ghost Society once spent 13 hours investigating the town after dark. Their camera caught a floating red light that they said wasn't a bug, dust, or the taillights of a passing car. And inside the music hall, they said it was the feeling in the room that made them believers.

Whether you believe the stories or not, Medicine Park does Halloween right. On Thursday, October 29, from 5 to 7 PM, the town hosts Trick or Treat Thru the Cobblestone Town: kids in costumes, participating businesses, the fire and police departments, and golf carts in Hitchin' Post Park handing out candy.

Driving in from Oklahoma City, Dallas or Amarillo? Bring the family, bring the costumes, and keep an eye out for ghosts. 🎃

So be honest: would you walk these streets alone after dark? And where would you be coming from?

10/28/2026

Most visitors never realize they’re standing beside one of the oldest surviving structures at Fort Sill.

Built in 1870, the Old Stone Corral was originally used to shelter Army horses and mules. Just a few years later, it became part of a pivotal chapter in American history during the closing years of the Red River War.

Today, these limestone walls still stand as a reminder that some of the biggest stories aren’t always the most obvious.

📍Have you ever stopped to look at the Old Stone Corral, or have you walked right past it?

📌 Save this for your next visit to Fort Sill.
➡️ Follow for more hidden Fort Sill stories.

10/28/2026

After a horse-stealing raid in 1870, the Army built this stone corral. 🐴

At a frontier post, horses were everything. The cavalry rode them, the supply wagons needed them, and raiders wanted them. After an attack on the post’s horse herd, the Army built the Old Post Corral at Fort Sill to protect its livestock. It was part of a corral complex that also included picket houses for guards.

Today the corral is Building 160, the southernmost building of the old fort. It’s completely enclosed by an 8-foot limestone wall, and the stone came from local quarries. The walls were built by the Black soldiers of the 10th Cavalry, the Buffalo Soldiers, and all the labor was done by soldiers. Raids kept interrupting the work, and the first set of buildings at the fort took seven years to finish.

More than 150 years later, the walls are still standing at Old Fort Sill.

👇 Had you ever seen the Old Post Corral? Which building at Old Fort Sill should we show next?

Address

36 Ketch Creek Place
Medicine Park, OK
73507

Telephone

+15712285074

Website

http://www.wichitamountainslodge.com/

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