Driving deeper into the park, one encounters a fantastic stream. At various locations along the waterway, one may enjoy beautiful waterfalls, including one known as Little Niagra. All along, people also enjoy jumping into this good old-fashioned swimmin' hole.
From here, it was just a short drive to the $40 million Chickasaw Culture Center. Build in 2010, the museum features exhibits explaining the plight of the Chickasaw and Choctaw people. I was happy to learn some things I had never known. Most of us know about native peoples being "removed" to Indian Territory in the mid-1800s. For years, I have known about the Cherokee people and their journey on the Trail of Tears. Now I know more about the Chickasaw's and Choctaw's Trail of Tears, as well, how two brothers led the nation by standing a pole in the ground and following the direction in which it leaned (If it didn't lean, they would know that was the location in which they would remain.). On one occasion, the brothers disagreed about which direction the pole leaned, and the people subsequently split into the two tribes. Behind the center was also a living history village, set up to look like an original Chickasaw village.