Samuel Washington Woodhouse Nature Center

The Samuel Washington Woodhouse Nature Center is open inside the Chandler Park Community Center. The facility serves as a hub for exploring the park’s 192 acres of biodiversity and history, offering educational activities, hikes, and young naturalist programs.

The center is open Tuesday - Saturday from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m., with free admission. Supplies and materials were made possible by the Tulsa Regional STEM Alliance, making STEM accessible for everyone in the 918.

About Samuel Washington Woodhouse:

In 1849, U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers Surgeon and Naturalist Samuel Washington Woodhouse was part of a team that was tasked with creating reports for the survey of the Creek Indian Boundary Line. His work during this venture provided some of the earliest written scientific observations of the region's geology and wildlife. Woodhouse’s work was at the forefront of the natural history studies made of this area. Nearly 175 years ago, Woodhouse and the survey team camped below the cliffs of where now Chandler Park sits, alongside the Arkansas River. His diary entry for Sept. 15 contains a sketch of the outcropping and the following passage: “It presents a strange appearance, looking at a short distance like an old fortification, and when you get near, they looked as though they had been raised out of the earth. They were all sizes and were only on top of the hills.” Woodhouse was describing the limestone outcroppings and formations now known as the “Lost City” where Chandler Park now stands.