Birthplace of Will Rogers

Rogers was born on Cherokee land to a Cherokee ranching family. His father, Clement Vann Rogers, part Cherokee, had built a house and ranch on tribal land in the Cooweescoowee District before the Civil War, and his mother, Mary America Schrimsher Rogers, was also part Cherokee. Will was the eighth child and the only boy of four to reach adulthood; his mother died when he was ten. Back from Texas ranches in 1898, he ran the cattle under his Dog Iron brand, and in South Africa he spun ropes in a Wild West show as the Cherokee Kid.

What the plaque says

Birthplace of Will Rogers Nov. 4, 1879 - Aug. 15, 1935 Will Rogers, world-renowned writer, humorist and actor, was born on a ranch east of Oologah in Cooweescoowee, Indian Terri- tory. He and Wiley Post died in an airplane crash at Point Barrow, Alaska. His birthplace was moved out of the path of Oologah Lake to 2 miles north of here and is open to the public. Oklahoma Historical Society 170-1995

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Will Rogers Memorial Museum — 8.7 mi
  The limestone memorial and museum on the Claremore hilltop Will Rogers bought for his retirement, opened on his birthday in 1938 and holding his papers, his films and his tomb.
• Greenwood Rising — 25 mi
  The history center at Greenwood and Archer that tells how Tulsa's Black Wall Street was built, how white mobs burned it in 1921, and how its people rebuilt it.
• Frank Phillips Home — 26 mi
  The 26-room Neo-Classical house in Bartlesville that the founder of Phillips Petroleum built in 1909, kept almost as the family left it, furniture and all.
• Creek Nation Council Oak Park — 27 mi
  The oak on a south Tulsa hill where the Lochapoka Muscogee lit their fire in 1836 after removal from Alabama, the ceremonial ground from which Tulsa took its name.

More markers nearby

• Claremore Mound — 4.9 mi
• Oklahoma's First Waterflood — 10 mi
• Battle of Chustenahlah — 21 mi
• Cabin Creek Battlefield — 24 mi