S. W. Woodhouse at Lost City

by Wayne Cooper

Samuel Washington Woodhouse, surgeon-naturalist, accompanied the 1849-50 Creek Indian boundary survey. His work in the Indian Territory was one of the first comprehensive natural history studies made of the area.

His contributions to Reports of the Survey of the Creek Indian Boundary Line were his first as a government naturalist. Details of the group’s activities are found in Woodhouse’s three journals that were faithfully kept day by day during the journey into Indian Territory. Many of his observations were the first scientific notations of the geology and wildlife of the territory.

On September 15, 1849, Woodhouse and his survey party camped on the Arkansas River west of Tallassee. His diary entry for the day contains a sketch of an outcropping and the following passage. “It presented a strange appearance, looking at a short distance like an old fortification and when you got near they looked as though they had been raised up out of the earth. They were of all sizes and were only on top of the hills.”

The outcropping was the weathered limestone formation known historically as “Lost City,” which reaches 50 feet in thickness on the south side of the Arkansas River, near present day Sand Springs, Oklahoma.

S. W. Woodhouse at Lost City by Wayne Cooper was dedicated on March 7, 2006. The commission was managed by the Oklahoma State Senate Historical Preservation Fund, Inc.

The painting is located inside the North hallway of the Oklahoma State Senate wing on the fifth floor of the Oklahoma State Capitol and can be viewed daily from 8:30-5:30 when the Senate is not in session.

The Artist

Wayne Cooper is an acknowledged national painter known for his portrayals of Western and American Indian subjects. He comes from a background of Indian heritage and was raised on a small ranch gaining first hand knowledge of Oklahoma ranch life.

Cooper is listed in Artists USA, Who’s Who in the Midwest, Who’s Who in American Art, International Who’s Who in Art and Antiques, Universal Directory of the Art and Personalities of the Americas, and others.

His works consist of oils, water colors, charcoals, pencil, sculpture (bronzes) and lithographs. His works are held in many private and public collections worldwide, including the halls of the Oklahoma State Senate and House of Representatives.