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JENA DONNELL/ODWC

servation biologist with the Oklahoma Natural Heritage Some of Oklahoma’s first dragonfly and damselfly records were collected
at Cavanal Lake, a small lake created along the St. Louis-San Francisco
Inventory (http://www.oknaturalheritage.ou.edu). Railway to power the steam engines. Today, Cavanal Lake can be accessed
While Williamson’s discoveries were remarkable for by the 6.5 mile Old Frisco Trail, a part of the Rails-to-Trails network.
such a brief stopover in the state, a connection made while
at Wister helped the naturalist stay involved in Oklahoma’s JENA DONNELL/ODWC
dragonfly world and make additional contributions after he
returned to Indiana.
“Williamson met and hired a young man named Frank
Collins while in Wister,” Smith said. “Collins, who lived in
Indian Territory, continued to collect dragonflies along the
Poteau River and around Henryetta in the summer of 1907
and later mailed the specimens to Williamson. Though he
didn’t have any formal entomological training, Collins really
was quite the collector.”
Collins collected the first Oklahoma records of 14 addi-
tional species and sent them to Williamson to be identified
and reported. All told, Williamson and Collins collected the
first Oklahoma records of 39 species of dragonflies and
damselflies in 1907. That represents 22 percent of the state’s
current odonate diversity!
Smith captured early Oklahoma records like Collins and
Williamson’s, and created detailed historical and biological
species accounts for each of the state’s 176 odonates in
Williamson’s historic trip and a summary of the state’s 176 species of odonates
“Dragonflies at a Biogeographical Crossroads.” are captured in the 738-page “Dragonflies at a Biogeographical Crossroads.”

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