Bird creek has deep 20 to 30 ft banks for miles and miles. To fish there you have to have access to a good spot, an army shovel to cut steps, and a buddy to hand stuff up or down. Crossing this creek even today with horses and wagons seems impossible. The water is at least 6 ft deep in the center, and a winter crossing would be insane. Just in front of the cabin where the battle 'centered' is a wide spot of blue shale with about 6 inches of water, "Known only to the indians" Just east of that spot was a massive lookout tree whose 6 ft diameter remains were still visible in the 1950s. The cabin is on the EAST side of the creek. The indians fled WEST, with hours of warning from the lookout tree for the women, children, slaves and wagons to make it across. The battle was a 'holding action' to allow this to happen. The attack upsteam by Yahola on the rear of Cooper's troops was also a delaying tactic. The fierce fighting by Yahola at the cabin and down to and crossing the creek were necessary to insure the survival of his people. Cooper crossed to the east of bird creek. If he had crossed to the east of hominy(shoal) creek, he would be in between the two creeks,since they 'y' together less than a mile north of the battle site. He traveled south on the east side of bird creek since it had the only prairie as it is the high side of that creek. The west side of bird is like a tropical jungle, and that goes for the area between the two north of the battle. Plus he came south from Skiatook which is between the creeks. The terrain in front of the cabin(between the cabin and bird creek) has a 20 ft dropoff or 'parapet' still today that can be entered from flat ground 200 yds north of the site. When Cooper's right flank went into this bottom land, they entered a horrific kill zone of trees and brambles, fired on from cover above. This made the escape west across bird creek a brilliant maneuver since anyone trying to follow would be in another kill zone trying to cross the creek at only one point at dusk. This explains the next battle west of Skiatook, since Yahola followed hominy creek west and crossed north of it. I have lived at the battle site and have roamed it over 1500 times in the last 35 years. The cabin was replaced by a house in the 1950's.(it was burnt to evict squatters in the 1930s) The owner refused to have the monument of the battle site placed there. It is at the indian reservation just north of there. They(owners) were of indian origin and became the leading researchers of indian ancestral accounts of the battle. The ledgend of the buried gold that still haunts the landowners in the area is probably just that. Only on person has ever been allowed to search the battle site. In the 1960s a man from Tennessee ,well in his eighties, was stopped in front of the site. When confronted, he claimed that his father and uncle had fought in the battle, and he had to see it before he died. The owner allowed it and the first question surprised him. "Where is the lookout tree?" Not many people alive know this part of the battle. It is right in front of the crossing spot of the creek, which he found 2 mini-balls in the crevases of the blue shale.