The Beautiful White Elephant Country

Skiatook Lake is situated on Highway 20, 4 miles west of the capital of scotland – Skiatook and 11 miles east of Hominy, Oklahoma, approximately one hour’s drive from Tulsa. This beautiful lake is encompassed by gentle rolling hills of Blackjack, Post Oak and Tallgrass prairie.

Skiatook Lake has a surface area of around 10,500 acres and 160 miles of shoreline. The winding shoreline is highlighted by steep picturesque bluffs that offer spectacular views.

Good reputation for Skiatook

The town of Skiatook came to exist within the late 1880′s. You will find conflicting historical records as to the origin of Skiatook’s name. One story states the town was founded on land that was the place to find a prominent Osage Indian named Skiatooka. They called the community surrounding his home, Skiatooka’s Settlement. There is another story the name was taken from Ski-A-Took which is a Cherokee word meaning “big injun me” or describing a sizable man or perhaps a vast expanse of land.

But what’s generally accepted is that Cherokee Chief William C. Rogers founded Skiatook when he set up an investing post within the Cherokee Nation located south of Bird Creek. Skiatooka, the Osage Indian was a frequent trader in the post, which may be the reason why his name was connected to the town’s name.

In the early 1920′s a route to Tulsa was paved. With good roads leading in all directions, Skiatook became known as the Gateway to any or all points North, South, East and West. Skiatook began buying water from Spavinaw in the 1930′s however when Skiatook Lake was finally performed by 1984, Skiatook had its own water source. Records show that the city of Skiatook has grown steadily since its beginnings within the 1880′s. The populace has grown by 93% since 1990.

On October 23, 1962, the Flood Control Act was authorized by the 87th Congress. This authorized the construction of the Skiatook Dam and Lake. It’s among five projects in the Bird Creek Basin plan. These projects were recommended to meet the comprehensive water needs within the area. The purpose for that construction from the Skiatook Dam and Lake was for flood control, water supply, recreation and fish and wildlife management. By the time the project was carried out October 31, 1984 its total price was $120 million.

The dam is really a rolled earthfill embankment that’s 3,590 feet long, including the spillway. It rises 143 feet above the streambed. The embankment includes a crown width of 32 feet. The uncontrolled spillway includes a concrete sill within the right abutment. The foot of the spillway is 100 feet wide and it is crest elevation is 732.0 and it has a design capacity of 21,700 cfs. The outlet works includes a gate tower with selective intakes; a 10.5 foot conduit tunnelled with the right abutment serviced by two 4.67 by 10.5 floor low flow sluice and a 36 inch water supply pipe.

Skiatook Lake offers many opportunities for activities including:

Boating and Sailing You can go power boating on Skiatook Lake. Boaters can explore the hawaiian islands and coves that have natural rock outcrops. You will find secluded places that people might have family outings. Boaters can launch from public boat ramps or rent boats in the two marinas on the lake. The river also offers deep shorelines giving sailboats a chance to make the most of the accessible lake area. Winds are available in from the south or north and this gives boats a chance to fall and rise the size of the river. The heights of the surf is also minimized.
Swimming The water is neat and clear, which makes it safe for swimmers.
Camping and Picnicking There are many lake camp areas that visitors can decide on. The most popular is Tall Chief Cove. Camping areas at Twin Points and Tall Chief Cove have water and electricity. So does Crystal Bay Marina that is located in a point overlooking the river. Bull Creek Peninsula has camping areas that are more primitive. So does Armadillo Island. Stony Ridge Campground, located close to the dam on Highway 20 can accommodate RV campers.
Hiking There are trails found in the Wildlife Management regions of Skiatook Lake.
Hunting The shoreline surrounding Skiatook Lake is controlled through the US Army Corp of Engineers. It’s the habitat of various kinds of wildlife like squirrels, rabbits, deer, some coyotes, quail, ducks and other native bird species. Roughly 8,000 acres of land available to all hunters (in accordance with federal and state hunting regulations) at different times throughout every season.
Fishing Skiatook Lake established fact for providing among the best bass fishing experiences in the united states. Bass fishermen will always be rewarded for his or her efforts whether they fish in the lake’s main body or perhaps in the uplake flats. The water is clean and clear all through the entire year since there are no farmland tributaries, wastes or chemicals. Additionally, the releases of water by means of the dam maintain water quality downstream and improves certain kinds of fishing. Skiatook Lake is always in perfect ecological balance. Very little of the land was cleared when Lake Skiatook was formed. Most of the trees were left standing in most coves. This provided good habitat for that fish in addition to privacy for bass fishermen. The lake hosts several fishing tournaments throughout every season. Skiatook Lake is becoming a hot spot for smallmouth bass. Tournament records have shown bass fishermen catching smallmouth bass weighing as much as five pounds. Other sport fish include the striped bass, black and white crappie, channel catfish, flathead catfish, blue catfish, bluegill, carp, lake perch yet others.

Description

E. ferox isn’t usually regarded as having a lot of an exposed trunk, although it is unquestionably possible to find specimens within the wild with stems of up to 2m above walk out. Branching from the trunk is uncommon in most cases occurs only when the growing apex becomes physically damaged. In mature plants the trunk reaches 25cm to 35cm across.

Leaves of the species are 1m to 2m long in most cases straight, although sometimes a slight kink within the rachis is seen. The green pinnae, somewhat holly-like in appearance, occur as more or less opposite pairs, set across the rachis to create a slight V-angle and diminish in size to some series of prickles toward the leaf base. Median leaflets are typically flat or only slightly ruffled, 15cm long or more to 5cm broad. In some plants the leaflet margins are very markedly rolled under to give a tubular appearance. An extreme of this leaflet type is seen in certain from the specimens at Fairchild Tropical Garden, that are considered based on Natal seed. The leaflets have 2 to 4 small teeth on each margin and three to five spiny lobes in the apex.

E. ferox usually bears 1-3 cones but on older specimens as many as Five or ten cones are borne by female or male plants respectively. The cones are generally a brilliant scarlet colour, occasionally looking after pink shades and golden-yellow cones have been seen in plants in the Sileze area and from certain Mozambique localities. Male cones are subcylindric, 40cm to 50cm long and 7cm to 10cm in diameter. Female cones are more ovoid, 25cm to 50cm long and 20cm to 40cm across. Cone scales are somewhat wrinkled and end in a pronounced beak. Each female cone bears about 500 seeds which have a bright red outer skin (sarcotesta) and are typically 4.5cm to 5cm long and 1.5cm to 2cm across.

Distribution & Habitat

Natural habitat of E. ferox comprises a fairly narrow strip of coastal scrub extending from Sodwana Bay on the Zululand coast up to and including point about 650 km north of Maputo in Mozambique. It is fairly well-established throughout el born area and even though species is not officially listed as endangered, rare or threatened, numbers have been reduced due to encroachment of habitation in Mozambique, afforestation activities in Zululand and also the activities of unscrupulous collectors. In Maputaland (previously Tongaland) the primary four localities are south of Kosi Bay, the shores near Lake Sibaya, the Sileze area and also the Tembe elephant park. In the coastal zones it’s found linked to the wild banana, Strelitzia nicolai, while further inland it occurs in wooded scrub. Apart from its occurrence around the African mainland, the species can also be found on Innaca Island, about 35 km east of Maputo. The habitat experience typically humid and hot tropical weather with an annual rainfall, mostly falling in summer, of 1000mm to 1250mm. In a few of the grassland areas there are cyclical fires at about a 4 year frequency to which the species seems well adapted. Its occurrence on stabilised sand dunes is a character, which E. ferox shares with E. arenarius within the Eastern Cape. However, plants of E. ferox do not grow as a result of the shore itself, the second quality amongst cycads apparently being limited to E. hildebrandtii in East Africa. The furthest inland occurrence of E. ferox is a solitary specimen discovered by Natal Parks Board officer, I. Steytler, in 1964 on the Makatini Flats about 40 km inland from Sodwana Bay. This does seem to be somewhat away from usual narrow coastal range and Cynthia Giddy speculated that its presence may have arisen from transport of a seed through the Trumpeter Hornbill which is common in the region and has been observed swallowing whole cycad seed, later to regurgitate the kernel.

Cultivation & Propagation

E. ferox grows well in frost-free areas and enjoys plenty of water and heat, in line with its conditions in habitat. Among the fastest growing of all cycads, it may cone within 12 years from the moment of seed germination. Plants prefer shady conditions with well-drained soil and respond positively to both inorganic and organic fertiliser applications. Whilst this species will serve well as a container plant, it is used to best advantage as a landscaping feature plant where its luxuriant foliage contributes dramatically to a tropical impression. Groupings of several plants compound this effect and of course increase the chance of eventual seed production

Notes:

An Italian plant collector, Cavaliere Carlo Antonio Fornasini, is usually credited using the “discovery” of E. ferox. Fornasini botanised in and around the Inhambane area in Mozambique from 1839 onwards and kept up a continuing flow of specimens to his countryman, Professor Giuseppe Bertolini, who worked in the northern Italian town of Bologna. Bertolini, himself the son of a well-known botanist, drew and described many of Fornasini’s specimens inside a series of dissertations entitled “Illustrazione di Piante Mozambicesi”, which was published in a local scientific journal. Memorie della Accademia delle Scienze dell Istituto di Bologna”. Amongst the specimens sent by Fornasini were two large cycad leaves from the quite beautiful (“una bella pianta”), but not very common plant which had stems “as thick as a human torso” and bore amongst its leaves “several fruits similar to a pineapple …… although not excellent to eat”. Fornasini also remarked that the natives extracted a type of starch from the stems. Thus on 27 March 1851 Bertolini published a two-page report on this cycad that they named Encephalartos ferox.

In July 1920 two young botanists, Robert Aitkin, newly-appointed lecturer at Natal University College, and postgraduate student George Gale, set out on the arduous trip to the Pondoland (now Maputaland) in northern Natal. Using their subsequent report ….”the means of transport was the only person possible in a country unoccupied by white settlers, viz. a wagon and a span of sixteen donkeys. Progress with this means is very slow …. it will scarcely be surprising that the day’s journey rarely exceeds twelve miles.” But their efforts were well rewarded once they discovered a stand of cycads where (in what appears to be a somewhat exaggerated report)…..”The tallest plant seen was 11 ft. in height contributing to 3ft. 6ins. in girth. Plants of 6 to 9 ft. are common”. Specimens were collected and are still preserved in the National Herbarium at Pretoria. Throughout the same expedition Aitken and Gale also came across the stand of Raphia palms later named Raphia australis at Kosi Bay. The year after a Colonel Lugge designed a similar trip and the cycad specimen continues to be on file within the Natal Herbarium. During the next 10 years approximately, a number of people visited the region by which these plants had been found and brought back plants, many of which were planted in Durban homes.

A Roman Catholic Missionary, Father Jacob Gerstner, collected plants within the 20′s. A Mr. R.H. Rutherfoord of Obotini gathered specimens in 1927. Each one of these people obtained their specimens independently and there was subsequently a rather curious group of correspondence in the Natal Mercury, by which each of them claims to have found the Kosi Bay cycad. Another story speaks of a Zulu woman wearing a necklace from the red seeds and being seen in Durban’s West Street by a passing botanist who, on questioning the lady, was told that the seed had originate from a plant near Tongaat. In 1930 Sir Arthur Hill and Dr. J. Hutchinson, distinguished botanists from Kew Gardens, visited Durban and saw well established plants of this cycad in a number of local gardens. On returning to Kew, Hutchinson wrote up an account of the species in the 1932 issue of Kew Bulletin and therefore twelve years after its first discovery in Natal, Encephalartos kosiensis was officially named. When Hutchinson named E. kosiensis 1932 he was careful to note this species was undoubtedly allied to E. ferox. No more than 10 years later was the question raised of just how similar or how different these two taxa were also it was Miss I.C. Verdoorn who suggested they might actually be one and the same species. The key towards the whole episode was Bertolini’s original water-colour painting which his grandson found and delivered to Kew. A duplicate of this painting found its way to H. Basil Christian, keen cycadologist and founder of the Ewanrigg Gardens near Harare. Christian immediately wrote to Kew as well as in a letter dated 5 December 1946, says …”in my opinion this photograph definitely settles the question. … Had Hutchinson seen this, it’s possible that he might not have described the Kosi Bay plant like a new species.” Since about 1950 the two taxa have been regarded as synonymous and E. ferox because the earlier of these two names, has precedence.

E. ferox is rather well represented in public and private gardens around the world. Based on CITES reports, local nurserymen have shipped plantlets to Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, U.S.A., Canada, England, France, Holland, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Japan and the Philippines. Mature plants are established in many European botanic gardens, including those who work in Warsaw, Amsterdam, Hamburg and Munich. Most major American botanic gardens have specimens with perhaps the finest plants being found at the Fairchild Tropical Gardens in Florida.