(The following is an update on Confederate MG Sterling Price's line of march into the Valley of Sallisaw Creek (Adair County, OK) on Saturday, November 5, 1864, and Federal MG Samuel R Curtis' follow-up chase along the same line on Monday, November 7, 1864. At the time, Price had around 7,000 men (3,000+ men were raw recruits) in his Army of Missouri, and Curtis pursued Price with about 3,500 well-armed troopers. My main objective was to identify where Price and Curtis crossed the modern north-south highway, US 59, running thru Stilwell, OK. I have checked US BLM Initial Survey maps, local cemetery records, Stilwell historical society research, Cherokee Nation history, and talked at length to a long-time resident of the Zion community. I have written several pages on my findings, but here is a summary of the results.)

Price and Curtis crossed US 59 some 1.9 miles south of downtown Stilwell, OK, 0.94 miles south of OH 100 (East leg), and 0.23 miles north of County Road 085, or Zion Road, at lat. 35 d, 47.230 m North, long. 94 d, 37.557 West. Price crossed on 11-5-64 and Curtis on 11-7-64, both in the early morning hours. (Some of the summary research findings follows.)

Price marched west from Evansville, AR (located along the old Ft. Scott-Ft. Smith military road, sometimes called the state-line road) along a Indian road lying along the south side of Evansville Creek. Once in Indian Territory (IT), the land becomes flat and fertile, and was and continued to be a desirable Cherokee farm and ranching area. Today, Oklahoma highway 100 runs from the state line at Evansville west along the south side of Evansville Creek until the creek turns north near the western crest line of Davis Mountain and Taylor Mountain. OH 100 runs thru "Taylor's Gap", my name) between the two mountains and on around Davis Mountain to Stilwell.

Sallisaw Creek has its headwaters on the western flank of Taylor's Gap, drawing runoff from both Davis Mountain and Taylor Mountain. (Taylor's home place is shown in the Initial Survey of 1898 on the BLM map along the Evansville Road passing thru the gap). The BLM map clearly shows the old wagon road headed from Evansville thru the gap and proceeding on west, then southwest down the forming Sallisaw Creek.

Where was this main east-west Cherokee road going? It was not a military road in 1860, and it was not going to Stilwell, which was started in 1895 when the KCS (KC,P & G) railroad was built N-S thru the area. This main Indian road served Flint District of the Cherokee Nation. The road provided good access from the rich plains of Evansville Creek, located in the Flint District, to the Cherokee's governmental and judicial operations at the Flint District Court House, located five miles to the southwest of the Gap. Flint District Court House had operated since 1840. This road then continued on southwest down Sallisaw Creek past Dwight Mission and on to the Arkansas River, which Price camped at and crossed on November 6 & 7, 1864, respectively. Curtis followed Price down the Sallisaw and arrived around noon at the Arkansas crossing site on November 8.

Can this Flint-Evansville road be seen or located today? Yes, some of it can.

The best place to view it is on Google Earth, however. Search "Zion, OK." Zoom in until you can clearly see the new track looping the football field, west of Zion School (Home of the Jets). Zion School is the U-shaped white roofed building located just east of the football field (and track). You will note that County Road 085 runs east-west, north of the school, and CR 085 runs all the way east about a mile to US 59, a couple of miles south of Stilwell. Zion is a old Cherokee settlement and is located in the middle of the "beautiful Sallisaw Valley" Curtis noticed. While a newer Zion community cemetery is located in the center of the U of Zion School, an even older (1871-1879) Starr Family Cemetery is located about 1/2 mile northeast of the school. About midway between the school and the Starr Cemetery is a fork in the road. The eastward fork is CR 085 (Zion Road), and the northeastern road (lane) goes on up to the old Starr Cemetery (passing houses, cow lots, and barns, etc.). Starr Springs (used by old Zion) is located near the fork in the road.

The Evansville-Flint road approached Zion from the northeast, passed Starr Cemetery a 100-feet to the south, and was the road (lane) you see running southwest back to the fork near the Springs, then on thru Zion, but it does not continue on west as E085 (or Zion Road). On the east side of Zion School, the road that runs southwest into the school grounds is the old Evansville-Flint road that Price and Curtis followed in 1864 on southwest to Flint Court House, now only 2.4 miles away. Zion School has been in operation since 1905 and was built on the grounds of the old Zion Church shown on the 1898 BLM Initial Survey along with the Starr Family Cemetery and Flint-Evansville road. The school's subsequent growth has surrounded the old Zion Church's cemetery. The BLM map shows that the Zion Church (and today's Zion School) sat on the north side of the old Flint road, not on the south side of CR 085, as would be true today.

An interesting story about the history of Flint District Court House can be found at the following website:

http://www.lasr.net/travel/city.php?OK+stilwell+flint-courthouse&TravelTo=OK0301051&VA=Y&AttractionCategory=&Attraction_ID=OK0301051a006

The 1898 BLM map used in this research is located at:

http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/details/survey/default.aspx?dm_id=23003&sid=a35zmcia.bqf#surveyDetailsTabIndex=1