Sometimes, we just need to get away and visit something new. That’s what my family did last week. We took a trip up to Woolaroc Wildlife Preserve and Museum. It was founded by Frank Phillips and is about a 45 minute drive north of Tulsa. This last week, they were hosting the Spring Traders Encampment. That is an encampment meant to capture the life of the mountain man era and the trading camps that were part of that time.

There were spinning wheels with woven products, black powder shooting competitions, the sale of handmade knives, hatchets and long rifles. Many of the campsites were preparing their suppers over open fires. Around the grounds you can also encounter various relics such as dried out steer heads with horns, elk antlers and tools and equipment used in the past.

Woolaroc also has animal life on their preserve. Some of the wildlife we saw were deer American bison, another type of unique deer, water buffalo, an ostrich and llamas. The museum is an excellent collection of the various time periods of the west. I personally found the bronze sculptures depicting those time periods fascinating. They were wonderfully done.

The day trip there is well worth the time invested. It is refreshing, educational and relaxing. This quick review doesn’t start to tell the story. I didn’t have time to dig into the Frank Phillips story which is an adventure in itself. I need to make another (longer) trip to investigate and enjoy the adventure more completely.