Doaksville Candlelight Tour

The annual Doaksville Candlelight Tour will be held on Friday, October 13, and Saturday, October 14, at the Doaksville Archaeological Site in Fort Towson, OK. The cost for admission is $8, age 6 and under will be admitted for free. Advance tickets may be purchased at the Fort Towson Historic Site or by calling 580-873-2634. Tours begin at 7 p.m. on both nights with the last tour starting at 9:30 p.m. Tours will leave from the Fort Towson cemetery every 30 minutes and guests will cross the WPA wall to enter the historic town and begin their guided walking tour. Each tour will last approximately 1 hour. This event is first come, first served, with advanced ticket holders seated first. Guests should be aware that the terrain is rugged.

Written information provides insights into the past. History comes alive when we read the personal accounts of those who came before us in journals, diaries, letters, reports, photographs, and newspapers. This year’s Doaksville Candlelight Tour will draw upon information gained from The Choctaw Intelligencer, one of the two newspapers that operated at Doaksville. Hot topics of the year 1851 were problems with the mail, a local murder, the lost expedition of Sir John Franklin, Choctaw law enforcement, marriages, flooding, robbery, deaths, measles outbreak, parties, and the death of a United States President.

Prior to the Doaksville Candlelight Tour on Saturday, October 14, from 1 to 3 p.m., come to the Fort Towson Historic Site museum to hear a presentation about “Weapons and Uniforms of the mid-19th century” given by Charles R. Lemons. Lemons is the retired curator of the Patton Museum of Cavalry and Armor in Fort Knox, Kentucky. This Lemons presentation is free with the price of general admission to the Fort Towson Historic Site museum.