Day 1 - Durant, Oklahoma

After leaving Denison and heading north, we quickly passed over the Red River and entered into Oklahoma.  We passed through the town of Durant which is the home of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and the Durant Choctaw Casino Resort.  The town of Durant was founded by Dixon Durant who was a Choctaw who lived there when the MKT (Katy) Railroad came there when it crossed through Indian Territories in the 1870s.  Dixon was a descendant of Pierre Durant and his four sons, all of French-Choctaw origin, who made the journey up the Trail of Tears on the way to the southeastern part of the Choctaw Nation in 1832.  Pierre Durant's ancestors came from Montreal.