Craterville Park

The Indian fair the sign credits to Rush drew its sharpest review from Native organizers. On September 11, 1932, after the Caddo County Free Fair in Anadarko, Lewis Ware, Jasper Saunkeah, Robert Goombi, Julia Mahseet, Parker McKenzie and others met to plan their own annual dances, recordings of their languages and films. Calling themselves the South Western Indian Fair, they judged Craterville's presentation white-oriented and wanted more autonomy than the 'figurehead' Indians Rush allowed. After crowded dance programs in September 1933 they launched an August fair in Anadarko, now the American Indian Exposition, Craterville's successor.

What the plaque says

Craterville Park 1923-1956 Frank S. Rush purchased several hundred acres in 1923, including the Township of Craterville. before retiring as supervisor of the Wichita National Forest and Game Preserve (now Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge). That same year he established Craterville Park in a meadow two miles north-northeast of this marker. The park quickly became the premier family entertainment venue in southwest Oklahoma. Amenities included camping, rental cabins, horseback riding, a general store, a U.S. Post Office, an Indian curio store and museum, a spring-fed swimming pool, a restaurant, a skating rink, and amusement rides. Professional rodeos were featured events. The Craterville Park Indian Fair was established in 1924 through an agreement between Rush and a group of Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache leaders. The fair featured American Indian crafts, powwows, and sports. Rush died suddenly in 1933. His son, E. Frank Rush, continued to expand and enhance the park. Western movie and television stars, Grand Ole Opry singers, and circus acts performed every weekend. The shows were free to the public and attended by thousands. The expansion of Fort Sill in 1956 forced Craterville Park's relocation to a site north of Altus near Quartz Mountain State Park. Frank Rush III and Oklahoma Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge — 4.7 mi
  Worn granite peaks and mixed-grass prairie in Comanche and Kiowa homeland, set aside in 1901 and restocked in 1907 with fifteen bison sent by train from the New York Zoological Park.
• Comanche National Museum and Cultural Center — 13 mi
  The Comanche Nation's own museum in Lawton, built so that the history, art and lifeways of the Nʉmʉnʉʉ, The People, are told from a Comanche perspective.

More markers nearby

• Cutthroat Gap Massacre — 18 mi
• Camp Radziminski — 19 mi
• Walters, Oklahoma — 26 mi