Well... I'm getting myself confused. I decided that I have fewer and fewer brain cells that I keep putting increasing demands on.

My comments on "prairies" in eastern Oklahoma: There are many more trees in eastern Oklahoma (east of the Grand) than there were 150 years ago. The trees on the prairies were nearly all along rivers and creeks and any other other trees became landmarks giving us names like "Grove" and "Timberred Hill". There used to be buffalo in eastern Oklahoma and they ate sapplings. The the Cherokee came and grazed cattle on the same prairies. The only fences were around houses and gardens to keep animals out. We changed all that when we created section roads and fenced everything. Trees sprout up in the fence lines. Trees were planted around houses and for windbreaks. So, we don't have the vast open praires we used to -- at least they aren't as noticable from ground level but you can still see them from satellite views, thanks to Google Maps. ;-)

I believe Rowe's Praire is the prairie around Rose and generally north of the Cherokee Turnpike (see below). Somehow I assumed this was previously called Vann's Prairie, named for Avery Vann whose house David Rowe and Elizabeth Vann inherited. However, as you mention, Lt Col R.C. Parks took his battalion of the 1st Cherokee Mtd Vols (Watie was off with the other battalion) on a scout and passed by Joseph Vann's on Vann's Prairie. I assume the prairie south and southwest of Locust Grove to be Markham's Prairie and Leroy Markham, who held the lease on the old Bluford West salt works southwest of Locust Grove, is buried in Locust Grove. However, the Cavalier Cemetery where Joseph Vann is buried is on the southern end of this prairie. Seems that this prairie or at least the southern part of it may be Vann's Prairie.