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| Picture from The Nature Conservancy |
T he J. T. Nickel Family Nature and Wildlife Preserve is one of Oklahoma’s last attempts to recreate an “unfragmented native landscape” (The Nature Conservancy). The J.T. Nickel Family Preserve is near Tahlequah, OK where the Cherokee Heritage Center is also located; there you see an ancient Cherokee village, also search your ancestors. This nature and wildlife preserve is one that is trying to protect the living things that already live there and trying to introduce old friends such as elk that once roamed eastern Oklahoma. There is also a man that is walking the ancient trail of tears the Native Americans once had to walk; this man will end up in the Nickel Family Nature and Wildlife preserve at the Cherokee Heritage Center.
“The Nickel Preserve is largest privately protected conservation area in the Ozarks” (The Nature Conservancy). In 2000 the preserve was created as a gift from the John Nickel Family, it is 17,000-acres that is in eastern Oklahoma in the Cookson Hills and overlooks the Illinois River. The land is very diverse consisting of savanna, shurbland and prairie. The Preserve also has several threats against it which they are trying their best to protect. They have many invasive species like sericea lespedeza which threat the native grasses; they are getting rid of the Bermuda and fescue grasses and let the native grasses grow. “Prescribed burns here will restore the open woodlands conditions that Conservancy scientists believe historically existed” (The Nature Conservancy).
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| Picture from News OK |
Other than the beautiful J.T. Nickel Family Nature and Wildlife Preserve there is a man from Lawton Oklahoma who is about to finish up the Trail of Tears. Ron Cooper once was a couch potato he says; he was a black jack dealer at a local casino who wasn’t athletic at all. “One day, Ron decided it was time to try a monumental hike, something like the Appalachian Trail or the Pacific Crest Trail. He Chose the Trail of Tears route, he said, because ‘I just wanted to walk a trail that had a little more meaning to me’” (NewsOK.com). Ron had this idea after him and his wife left Lawton, OK and bought a travel trailer and work down near the Grand Canyon.
Not much of the Trail of Tears has been accurately mapped out by detail but throughout Cooper’s trip he had help with local historians to guide him the right way. He started his trail in Charleston, Tenn where the last Cherokee camp was. The trail led him through some people’s private property where many of them let him walk through. Ron walked about 15 miles a day and then made camp to rest; his wife was there every step of the way with their travel trailer. Though he did not go through the immense troubles the natives had to go through at the time Cooper had a top of the line backpack and shoes. He says he has very felt that connected with the nature and environment than he has now. His trail is going to end as close as he can get to the end at the J.T. Nickel Family Nature and Wildlife Preserve.
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| Picture from NewsOK |
The J.T. Nickels Family Preserve is very beautiful and we are lucky here in Oklahoma to gain a gift like that. A place that is protecting what they have and trying to make it look like it was hundreds of years ago. This place is also a historical place where the Cherokee Heritage Center is located and where one Ron Cooper from Lawton, OK ends his journey of the trail of tears. This is a connection of our beautiful environment and a connection with the our ancestors that lived and gave their lives for the land.
http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/oklahoma/placesweprotect/j-t-nickel-family-nature-and-wildlife-preserve.xml
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