09-Apr-2024 -- After (successfully) viewing the total solar eclipse in Texas, I am now heading to northwestern Arkansas for a couple of days of mountain biking, before returning to my home in California. While passing through the rustic southeastern corner of Okahoma (while driving from Gainsville, Texas to Fort Smith, Arkansas), I made a short detour to visit this ‘forgotten’ Degree Confluence Point, last visited more than 23 years ago, by Richard Rutledge in October 2000.
Google Maps directed me to approach the point from the South, but this was a mistake, because there seemed to be no public roads leading towards the point from the South. So instead, I ended up reaching the point from the Northwest, ending up on “NE 1180th Ave”, which runs North-South, passing just 0.1 miles East of the point, which lies just inside a farm field. This area had recently had heavy rain, and a ditch - between the road and a barbed-wire farm fence - was filled with water. I wasn’t able to cross this ditch without getting my shoes wet. But after crossing the ditch and crawling under the fence, it was an easy hike to the point.
In Richard Rutledge’s report, he mentioned that this area was being surveyed for natural gas. It seems that natural gas was, indeed, found, because now, just to the South of the point, there is some sort of small petroleum processing facility.