ROBBERS CAVE STATE PARK, near Wilburton, Oklahoma, is located in the valley of Fourche Maline Creek, which here cuts across the San Bois Mountains.
A frontal belt of the Ouachita Mountains, the Sans Bois lie across southern Haskell and northern Latimer counties. Sans Bois is a French phrase meaning "without wood." The mountains' height contrasts with the rolling hills to the south. In some areas the peaks reach more than 1,800 feet above sea level. They are composed mostly of dark shales with linear sandstone ridges that trend northeast to southwest, and the slopes are mostly covered with oak-pine-hickory forest. The sandstones and shales are of Pennsylvanian age. The formation is known as the Savanna Sandstone. The Savanna formation consists of three sandstone groups separated by shales. The upper sandstone division is about 200 feet thick while the others are thinner. In all three divisions the beds are more massive toward the top. The shale between the lower and middle sandstone is 300 to 450 feet thick and that between the middle and upper is 450 to 530 feet. The Savanna outcrops on the slopes of the principal mountains of the area and in fact the mountains are due to the resistant character of this formation combined with the structure. These large sandstone formations display Nature’s geologic past. As the Ouachita Mountains forced these rocks upward, weathering and erosion slowly broke apart the sandstone leaving the large formations that you see today.
The roomy sandstone caves at Robbers Cave State Park were a handy place for the outlaws who rode in the area during Indian Territory days to spend a few days, and the park’s canyons and pine-covered hills still make a fine place to hang out. The park, originally a Boy Scout camp turned Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) work camp in 1935, is built around the canyons and gorges cut by Fourche Maline Creek. The creek has been dammed to form Lake Carlton. The CCC built the park’s sandstone bridges and retaining walls as well as a wood-and-stone bathhouse that has been restored and now houses a nature center and museum overlooking Carlton Lake. The workers also carved steps into the 100-foot-high sandstone cliffs near the park’s namesake cave, making it more easily accessible to hikers. The main cave is in a 100-foot-tall sandstone formation that holds a 20-foot by 20-foot rock room. The French explorers who came through the area in the eighteenth century stashed provisions in the cave. Stories about the Dalton and Doolin gangs hiding out in the caves to escape federal marshals are hazy. The main cave was connected to two separate passageways, one leading directly to a three-sided canyon that would have been perfect for hiding horses.
To log this Earthcache:
Post a picture of your group at the posted coordinates, holding your GPSr. For physically challenged cachers, take your picture by the information board on the paved trail leading up to the caves.
Email me with with the date you visited the park, the number in your group and answer the following:
Estimate the degrees of slope of Devil’s slide and tell me what method you used to achieve your answer. I'm looking for an actual form of measurement. "Guessing" is not an actual measurement.