Enid man's passion for marking Chisholm Trail touches Vance

  • Published
  • By Joe B. Wiles
  • 71st Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
VANCE AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  Cattle herds as large as 10,000 head were driven across Oklahoma in the second half of the 1800s along what is now called the Chisholm Trail. John Wayne rode the trail many a time on the movie screen and Enid resident Bob Klemme has marked it with 400 white concrete posts, each standing 54 inches tall. 

"Everywhere the trail crosses a section line, I put one of these 200-pound markers in the ground," Mr. Klemme said. In the future, he plans to drop one more into a hole just inside the fence along the south side of Vance AFB. 

The markers are 6 inches by 6 inches by 7 feet tall, with 30 inches buried in the ground.
Vance has the historical distinction of being the only military installation the Chisholm Trail crosses. It comes in from the south near where a new gate will be built to allow Guard and Reserve units to enter the base on drill weekends, said Donita Hazlett, the Civil Engineering Flight deputy director. 

The trail then angles to the northeast and departs Vance property. Mr. Klemme, Col. Richard Murphy, 71st Flying Training Wing vice commander, Chief Master Sgt. Ruben Gonzalez, 71st FTW command chief, Ms. Hazlett and the 71st FTW historian, Jim Malachowski, drove along the gravel road paralleling the south side of Vance Monday, July 21, to find the exact crossing location. 

Mr. Klemme produced a hand-held Global Positioning System device and soon had the right spot. He knew it was right because of an accidental discovery at the Garfield County Court House in the 1980s. 

He was checking the legal description of a lot when he noticed a big book. "It was a copy of the original government survey that was made on what is now Oklahoma in 1871," he said. "I happened on the page for the township where downtown Enid is located." 

There was a dashed line running from southwest to northeast across the map with the words, "Abilene Cattle Trail," the original name of what is now called the Chisholm Trail. The name was changed in honor of the trader, Jesse Chisholm, who just before the Civil War, built a trading post in what is now western Oklahoma City. 

Mr. Klemme put his first trail marker in the ground Nov. 30, 1990, at the Garfield and Kingfisher County line. "It just exploded from there," he said. 

The trail runs almost 300 miles across Oklahoma, said Cova Williams with the Chisholm Trail Heritage Center in Duncan, Okla. "Highway 81 generally follows the Chisholm Trail from the Red River to Kansas," she said. 

According to the Oklahoma Historical Society, an estimated six million cattle traveled the Chisholm Trail during its brief use between 1870 and 1884.