Cultural ecology of the Garber-Wellington Cross Timbers in eastern Cleveland County, Oklahoma

The biotic district known as the Cross Timbers, which extends through central Oklahoma, resisted human interaction and modification for several thousand years. Even the early European and American travellers in the area agreed that the Cross Timbers woodlands were a rugged and treacherous place that was to be avoided if at all possible. In 1889, however, part of the Cross Timbers was opened to a growing American population. Almost immediately the woodlands began to fall to the settlers ax and the soil came under the plow.;The act of farming the fragile sandy soils of the Cross Timbers rapidly led to soil erosion and reduced agricultural productivity. These conditions, combined with weak markets and unfavorable climate, resulted in wide spread land abandonment and hard times for the settlers in the Cross Timbers. Yet, many people stayed in the Cross Timbers, even during the difficult decade of the 1930s, because they did not have any better place to go.;When the United States entered World War II economic opportunities appeared outside the Cross Timbers and a brisk out-migration ensued. This trend continued until the late 1960s and early 1970s when a new wave of migrants began to rush into the Cross Timbers. This new population of settlers was not comprised of farmers, but rather commuters who were employed in near by urban centers and chose to live in the Cross Timbers because of the rural life style and wooded environment it offered. The trend toward increasing population and density of settlement through 1990 was strong and all indications suggest that it will continue in the future. Ironically, this second wave of occupation brought its own problems that once again threaten the survival of the Cross Timbers.