Microsoft OneDrive Memory Takes Me To Wichita Falls Tulalip Casino Waterfall & Orcas

Interesting Microsoft OneDrive Memory from this Day showed up in my email this morning. Interesting due to being timely regarding news I read this morning about a similar thing in my current Wichita Falls location.

Wichita Falls is named after a waterfall on the Wichita River which disappeared way back in the late 1800s. Wiped out by a flood. One can walk by the location of the former waterfall via the Circle Trail. There is a sign letting you know you are at the location of the former waterfall.

So, after the Wichita River waterfall disappeared the town did not opt to remove "Falls" from its name, and just go by Wichita. Perhaps not wanting to be confused with the Wichita in Kansas.

After a century of visitors to Wichita Falls asking where the waterfall was the town decided to spend a few million bucks building an artificial waterfall. The artificial waterfall is prominently seen whilst driving by on the main freeway which passes through Wichita Falls.

However.

The artificial Wichita Falls waterfall is frequently turned off, which sort of defeats its purpose. The problem is the water for the artificial waterfall is sucked from the frequently super muddy Wichita River. The mud mucks up the pumping system, hence the frequent maintenance shutdowns.

So, the waterfall news referenced in the first paragraph above is the Wichita City Council is considering hiring some sort of engineering firm to analyze what needs to be done to renovate the Wichita Falls artificial waterfall.

Which takes us to the photo at the top which showed up this morning in my emails. That is a view of the entry to the Tulalip Casino Resort, in Marysville, in my old home state of Washington. The entry features a big realistic looking waterfall.

The Wichita Falls City Council should find out who built that Tulalip Casino waterfall and hire them to upgrade the Wichita Falls artificial waterfall.

Changing the subject, slightly, if you are ever in Washington, driving north of Seattle on I-5, it is well worth it to get off the freeway when you come to the Tulalip Casino exit, clearly visible from the freeway.

The interior of the casino is made to make it seem like you are underwater.

The exterior of the Tulalip Casino has water features in addition to the waterfall.

Such as Orcas, also known as Killer Whales, frolicking in the replicated sea. 

And a large statue of a Tulalip tribe member spearing salmon, by another waterfall.

There are a couple casinos a few miles north of my Wichita Falls location, on the north side of the Red River, in Oklahoma.

I have been to the closest one, the Apache Casino. There is a large parking lot in front of the casino, but nothing of the spectacular sort one sees at the Tulalip Casino in Marysville, Washington....

Going To Tulalip Casino In Marysville Via Microsoft & Fort Worth

This showed up in my email Microsoft OneDrive Memories from this Day. I think it was August of 2004, so clearly not a memory from this current June day.

I do not remember when last I was in Washington in June, since moving to Texas. Likely I have not been in Washington, in June, since moving to Texas.

The above is part of the large Pacific Northwest Native American themed installation in front of the Tulalip Casino in Marysville, Washington. Including a large statue of a Tulalip Indian, trying to catch salmon. Not visible in the photo is an oversized Orca leaping out of the water.

The entire Tulalip Casino is ocean themed, inside and out. Inside the decor makes one feel as if you are under water.

Near to the Tulalip Casino is the Tulalip Cabela's sporting goods store.

Long time readers of this blog may remember way back when Fort Worth became the first Texas town to get a Cabela's. Much fuss was made in the local purveyor of misinformation, known as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, touting that this Cabela's was to be the top tourist attraction in all of Texas. This was repeated repeatedly.

It was not long after the Fort Worth Cabela's opened that it was no longer the only Cabela's in Texas. One opened to the south, near Austin. And then another opened in Texas, on the Dallas side of the DFW Metroplex.

Cabela's used the con job touting that their store would become a top tourist attraction to extract tax concessions from the city it was wanting to open in. Apparently Cabela's was known for using this con on towns susceptible to being rubes. Thus Fort Worth was an easy mark.

The Cabela's top tourist attraction con was attempted when Cabela's built a store in Lacey, a town near Olympia, or after that when they built the Tulalip store.

Cabela's tried the con in Lacey, but was told if it did not make economic sense to build the store without concessions, then do not build it. Same with the Tulalip Cabela's.

Clearly not a Fort Worth level of rubes in Washington.

Fort Worth has such a long history of getting conned into doing dumb things.

Ever heard of the Trinity River Vision? An embarrassing boondoggle which has been limping along since the start of this century, with the Vision's main accomplishment, so far, being the building of three little bridges over dry land, to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

One day it is hoped  a cement lined ditch will be built under those three little bridges, with Trinity River water diverted into the ditch, creating the imaginary island.

You can only have imaginary islands in a town where the majority of the people are rubes. Seems clearly obvious...

Casinos in Texas, Oklahoma & Washington

I do not know if they still exist, but at one point in time 2 of the Indian tribes that still exist (in small numbers) in Texas, opened small casinos. The state of Texas did not like this. I do not know if Texas was successful in shutting the Indian casinos.

Other states that long ago tried to shut down Indian casinos found themselves on the losing end of court battles with the tribes, like my old home state of Washington. Eventually the state gave up, with the result being there are now Indian casinos all over the state, pretty much every Indian Reservation has at least one casino.

That is an Orca (Killer Whale) jumping out of the water in front of the Tulalip Casino in Marysville. This casino has some very well done water features. For more pictures and a list of the Washington casinos, go here.

In Washington, like Oklahoma, there is a lot of land set aside as Indian Reservations. Texas solved their Indian problem by either killing them or running them out of the state, with a few very small reservations. Some of the famous Texas Indians, like Quanah Parker, kept up contacts with Texans, even while living in Oklahoma.

All the states bordering Texas allow casinos. The 5th largest casino in the world is just across the border, in Oklahoma, that being WinStar World Casino. It would seem that an awful lot of Texas money leaves the state and ends up in Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisiana and Arkansas. There are attempts to allow casino zones in Texas. The Fort Worth Stockyards is suggested as one location. I've seen what a casino can do for an area. I think it would be a good thing for Texas to legalize casinos.

But, then again, if Texas legalized casinos it would likely destroy the border casinos, like WinStar and Choctaw Casino in Durant and Kiowa Casino, just north of Wichita Falls. It'd likely be hard on all those riverboat casinos in Shreveport/Bossier City in Louisiana.

Oklahoma has an incredible number of casinos, as in dozens upon dozens. Go here to see a list of all the casinos in Oklahoma.

Many of the Washington casinos have added large hotel type resorts to their casinos, just like WinStar World and Choctaw Casinos have done in Oklahoma. The revenue from the casino resorts has made the tribes in Washington much more prosperous.

However, if I were the dictator I would have never allowed casino gambling anywhere but Nevada. I used to really like going to Nevada. It was like a whole different type world as soon as you crossed the border. All that neon and the clink clink clink of slot machines virtually everywhere. Nevada ceased being unique well before I moved to Texas. The Skagit Valley, where I lived, even back then, had 2 large casinos. Now they are much larger, and totally Nevada-like. Slot machines were allowed after I moved to Texas. Those really amped up the popularity of the casinos.

So, now that the casino lid is totally off, for the most part, Texas really should join the club and stop sending all that money to the bordering states.