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• Wild Mustangs In Oklahoma
• Blackjack Mountain Oklahoma Map

Blackjack Mountain is 17 miles (27 km) long mountain ridge trending from northeast to southwest in Pushmataha County, Oklahoma. It is one of several such ridges in the Ouachita Mountains range.^[a] The highest peak has an elevation of 1,250 feet (380 m). The town of Rattan, Oklahoma is south of Blackjack Mountain.

Also in 2005, a band of seven mares and a stallion travelled from Blackjack Mountain, Oklahoma, to Fusco’s Red Road Farm in Vermont. This band of 100% pure tribal-line Choctaw ponies carried diverse and unique color genetics at risk of being lost forever. In 2008, the ponies traveled to Return to Freedom Wild Horse Sanctuary in California. Blackjack Mountain - Physical Feature (Summit) in Pushmataha County. Blackjack Mountain is a physical feature (summit) in Pushmataha County. The primary coordinates for Blackjack Mountain places it within the OK 74543 ZIP Code delivery area.

Etymology[edit]

The etymology of the name is unclear. It is reasonable to believe that the mountain was named for the species of tree named Blackjack Oak (a.k.a. Quercus marilandica). The tree is indigenous to the area of the United States that extends from Maryland to Florida along the Atlantic coast to east Texas and eastern Oklahoma. It would have been very familiar to the Choctaws in both their new and old homelands.

History[edit]

Blackjack Mountain is most notable as the place where mustangs have roamed freely for many years. Many writers have claimed that these horses are descended from those left behind by Spanish conquistadores who traveled in this part of North America during the early 1500s. This area became part of the vast Louisiana Purchase that the United States government acquired from France in 1803. By the 1830s, the immigration of millions of Europeans had created almost constant conflict with the Native American tribes that had long lived in the Southeastern states. The government, especially under the administration of President Andrew Jackson, adopted a policy called 'Indian Removal,' decided to resettle the natives to seemingly uninhabited land, then called 'Indian Territory,' west of the Mississippi River. One of these tribes, the Choctaw was granted a large part of the territory bounded on the east by Arkansas Territory, on the south by the Red River of the South and on the west by the 100th parallel. The U.S. Army forced the Choctaws to leave their former homelands and move to their new area in 1831. Thus, Blackjack Mountain and its mustangs became the property of the Choctaw Nation.

The original Spanish horses began breeding with other horses almost as soon as they congregated on the mountain. This led to changes in their gene pool. By the mid 19th Century, they became known collectively as 'Choctaw ponies.'

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

1. ^Other ridges in the Ouachita range are the Winding Stair, Rich, Kiamichi and Jackfork.^[3]

References[edit]

1. ^'Blackjack Mountain'. ListsOfJohn.com. Retrieved 2011-08-08.
2. ^'Blackjack Mountain'. Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved 2011-08-08.
3. ^Johnson, Kenneth S., '3. Topography and Principal Landforms.' In: Historical Atlas of Oklahoma. by Charles Robert Goins, Danney Goble, James H. Anderson. University of Oklahoma Press.(4th Edition) 2006. Page 6. Available on Google Books. ISBN0806134836. Accessed February 19, 2018.

Frank T. Hopkins (August 11, 1865 – November 5, 1951) was an American professional horseman who at one time performed with the Ringling Brothers Circus. He was supposedly a legendary long-distance rider, who won 400 races, and was recognized by his contemporaries as supporting the preservation of the mustang.^[1]

Though the film Hidalgo was based on Hopkins' purported story, his alleged exploits are most likely fictional. He has been described as a 'fabulator and a confidence man whose tales of heroic deeds were little more than tall stories.' Few items in his accounts have been verified by outside, reliable, third-party sources.^{[citation needed]}

Early life and education[edit]

Hopkins said he was born to a Lakota mother and European-American father, that he grew up in both cultures, and that he learned to ride and care for horses at an early age. He claimed that his father, Charles Hopkins, was a scout for George Armstrong Custer and he was captured by Chief Gall in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, but he was released four months later and returned to Fort Laramie, which is where Frank said he was born and raised (his father being with Custer cannot be substantiated).^[2] The Fort Laramie National Historic site has no record of his birth or family. There is a marriage certificate that Hopkins signed in New York in 1929 where his age was put at 44 which, if true, would place his birth in 1885. However, the photograph shown, said to have been taken in 1905, seems to show the appearance of a middle-aged man.

Career[edit]

Hopkins claimed to have been a cowboy and professional horseman in the American West, where he gained a reputation for distance riding. In his autobiographical memoir (unpublished in his lifetime) and accounts to friends, he claimed to have been featured as one of the 'Rough Riders of the World' in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, which toured in Europe^[3] as well as the United States.^[4]

A number of his stories have been debunked by many historians.^[5] Examples include:

• His claim to have won more than 400 races.
• His claim to have raced in a ceremonial 3,000-mile ride that passed the Gulf of Syria and the inland borders of two other Middle Eastern countries, which was supposed to have taken place in Arabia in 1890.
• His claim to have been a rider with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show was disputed by the curator of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, who said Hopkins' name is nowhere to be found in the archives.^[4] Hopkins has been found as listed in 1917 as being employed by the Ringling Brothers Circus as a horse handler.^[4]
• His claim to have brought 'trick riding' to Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show has been disputed by the Georgian Cossack expert, Irakli Makharadze.^[6]

In 1926 Hopkins was foreman of a construction crew, digging a subway tunnel in downtown Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Wild Mustangs In Oklahoma

In the 1940s, Hopkins claimed he was honorary chair at a Vermont Races, though the Vermont Historical Society has no knowledge of any races in Vermont.^[7] Hopkins also claimed to have won a Texas-to-Vermont endurance race at age 21, riding an 800-pound buckskin, but there is no evidence in contemporary sources that such a race was ever held.^[8] Up to the time of his death in 1951, he remained an outspoken champion of the threatened mustang which he called 'the most significant animal on the North American continent.'^[9]

Death[edit]

Frank Hopkins is interred in Lutheran All Faiths Cemetery in Middle Village, Queens County, New York.^[10]

In popular culture[edit]

Hopkins' life and the story of the race in Arabia were the inspiration for the 2004 film Hidalgo, written by John Fusco,^[11] directed by Joe Johnston, and starring Viggo Mortensen. The film marketed that was 'based on a true story' although subsequent investigations failed to find any evidence of such a race.^[5] Lakota scholar, historian and doctor Vine Deloria says 'Hopkins' claims are so outrageously false that one wonders why the people were attracted to this material at all.'^[12]

References[edit]

1. ^'Frank Hopkins - Legendary Endurance Rider of America'. frankhopkins.com. Retrieved June 19, 2015.
2. ^'Custer and the Battle of the Little Bighorn'. Wyoming Tales and Trails. Retrieved 19 January 2017.
3. ^'Buffalo Bill's Wild West in Scotland'. www.snbba.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-11-20.
4. ^ ^abcPeter Harrigan, 'Hidalgo: A Film or Flimflam?', in Arab News, 13 May 2003, accessed 2010-12-28
5. ^ ^ab'The Hopkins Hoax'. thelongridersguild.com. Retrieved 4 August 2015.
6. ^'Wild West Georgians'. www.georgians.ge. Retrieved 2015-11-20.
7. ^'The Los Angeles Times slays Hopkins'. thelongridersguild.com. Retrieved 4 August 2015.
8. ^'The late, great (fake) Texas-to-Vermont Horse Race'. addison-eagle.com. Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 4 August 2015.
9. ^'Archived copy'. Archived from the original on 2014-02-23. Retrieved 2014-02-10.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
10. ^'All Faiths Cemetery Notables'. allfaithscemetery.org. Archived from the original on February 25, 2015. Retrieved June 19, 2015.
11. ^'Frank Hopkins', tribute website sponsored by The Horse of the Americas Registry and the Institute of Range & The American Mustang, owned by John Fusco
12. ^'The Hopkins Hoax - Disney versus The World'. thelongridersguild.com. Retrieved 4 August 2015.

Blackjack Mountain Oklahoma Map

External links[edit]