National Register Listing

Rock Mary

4 mi. W of Hinton, Hinton, OK

Among the blind, it is said, the one-eyed is king And so it seems to have been among early-day travelers on the Great Plains. Plodding along slowly day after day on flat lands generally void of prominent landmarks, the occasional mound or butte or conspicuous rock was often made "king." Rock Mary was such an attention getter.
An unusual butte or mound of red sandstone, it first caught the eye of a California-bound party crossing present Western Oklahoma in 1849. It was noted and commented upon by many subsequent travelers. Over the years it acquired something of a romantic, half-legendary aura, partly because of its name, partly because of a "ghost" mound near by, and partly too perhaps because until 1960 there was widespread uncertainty as to just which mound of many in the area was indeed Rock Mary.

The origin o£ the name and its first appearance in print is found in the report of Lt. James H. Simpson of the Corps of Topographical Engineers. He was on the staff of Capt. R. B. Marcy at the time he was escorting an emigrant party westward from Fort Smith. In his report he includes the following extract from his personal journal:

"Camp No. 34, Wednesday, May 23. - Proceeding on about a mile, some hills of singular shape make their appearance, for the first time, bearing north 70° west; several have very much the appearance of immense Indian lodges. Nearing the first of these singularly formed hills, and it appearing more oddly shaped than any of the others, I started off alone to ascend it - reaching it just in time to scare up a wild turkey; and tying my horse to a black-jack tree at its base, I scrambled up to its summit. The novel character of the hill; its contorted appearance; its sudden emergence from the plain around it; my having reached its pinnacle; it being an object of interest to beholders in the distance; - all this had its complex influence upon me, and I felt correspondingly elated. Captain Marcy seeing me near the apex, suggested to me to unfurl (what I was about to do) a flag, and give it to the breeze. This I did, and soon I could see one person after another, Lieutenant Harrison and Dr. Rogers among them, leaving the train to get a look from its summit. A person present suggested that it be named after an Arkansas young lady, as much esteemed by the emigrants with whom she is in company, as she is by the officers.) I immediately fell in with the suggestion, and thereupon, with waving flag, proclaimed it to all concerned, that henceforth, in honor the said lady, the rock should be known as Rock Mary. ..." The Arkansas belle was Mary Conway.

Earliest sketch or drawing of "the Natural Mounds" (as they were usually referred to) - although it did not include Rock Mary, the easternmost of them - was made on October 1, 1845, by Lt. J. W. Abert of the Corps of Topographical Engineers from the north side of the Canadian River some eight miles away. Most familiar sketch of Rock Mary itself was that made by Baldwin Mollhausen, the botanist and artist who accompanied Lt. A. W. Whipple and his party westward in 1853 surveying a railroad route to the Pacific. As noted in the previous section, Rock Mary was noticed and described by many travelers in the second half of the 19th century. Judging by the initials carved into the redstone of its turreted top -- J. T. Johnson 1855 is the oldest still decipherable -- many of them have shared Lt. Simpson's urge to climb it.

Over the years, however, confusion had arisen as to which of the dozen or so buttes in the area was the real Rock Mary. Finally, hoping to resolve the matter once and for all, the Oklahoma Historical Society authorized a committee to examine the published evidence and undertake whatever field research was necessary to make a final de termination. This was done in 1960. "All of the tests or requirements laid out previously by the Committee," notes the official report, "had been met, and the feature fits in every detail." The location of Rock Mary, it concluded, "is not subject to serious challenge when the facts are analyzed in detail and with care."

Local significance of the site:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1970.