PO Box 2, Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402
Email: butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net
Phone: 580-490-6823
A GLIMPSE INTO THE PAST
In the early morning hours of Monday, July 2, 1962 J.C. Boone was performing his night watchman duties for the city of Wilson, Oklahoma as he had been doing for over a year. Wilson resident and service station owner Leo Welch and his wife pulled up and stopped the car in the street in front of the bank, and called for Boone, who was walking on the sidewalk. When Boone started toward Welch’s automobile, Welch opened fire with a .380 caliber pistol, striking Boone in the stomach. As he fell to the ground, Boone drew his pistol and emptied it into the driver’s door of Welch’s car. Welch, with his wife in the car with him, left for a couple of minutes and returned again, to fire more bullets at Boone. Welch then left and went to his D-X service station at the highway entrance of Wilson, and barricaded himself inside. Sheriff Gerald Cobb along with Deputies Elmer Fitzsimmons, Bud Hunt, Pete Fair and John Smithers surrounded the service station. Just when officers were about to hurl tear gas into the building, Welch surrendered. J.C. Boone was critically wounded requiring the removal of part of his stomach and intestine. But he would survive the shooting and continued to live in Wilson another 15 years.
October 1936 photo of the Ardmore Police department.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos15a/ArdmorePolice1936.jpg
Old photo of Crusher, Oklahoma in the Arbuckle Mountains.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos15a/CrusherOK.jpg
Mary Emde Lathum sent in several photos the other day the good old fashion way, the U.S. Mail. This first picture is the Great Explosion in Ardmore in 1915.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos15a/ArdmoreExplosion1915b.jpg
This next photo is the Santa Fe passenger train derailment in the Washita River canyon on December 24, 1909 in the Arbuckle Mountains.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos15a/ArbuckleMountains122409fix.jpg
The photo below was taken July 4, 1900 at Davis, Oklahoma. It’s a picture of the Draughon float during the parade that day.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos15a/DavisOK1900.jpg
This last photo sent in by Mary, the date is not known. But it’s a train derailment somewhere in southern Oklahoma.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos15a/TrainDerailment.jpg
December 1930
A 40 year fight by the City of Shawnee to become the county seat of Pottawatomie County appears to have been won. Indications are that Tecumseh, currently the county seat, will contest the latest election results. The fight over which city is the count seat dates back to shortly after the opening of the Pottawatomie-Shawnee Indian reservation.
December 1954
Carter County is half paralyzed this morning, Wednesday December 29, under the heaviest snowfall in five years. Christmas day was balmy with warm weather, but a seven inch snowfall soon followed.
The Jensen tunnel near Pocola, Oklahoma in far eastern Oklahoma was built in 1887 and is the only railroad tunnel in Oklahoma. On the map the tunnel is about 1,000 feet west of the Oklahoma/Arkansas line.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/JensenTunnel7d.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos15a/JensenTunnelAerial.jpg
A couple pavers I sandblasted this week. The first is actually 1 12×12 inch square porcelain I sandblasted for the Carter County Sheriffs Office. Porcelain is a much harder material than the brick type pavers I sandblast, but it turned out really nice.
https://oklahomahistory.net/bricks/CCSOTile.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/bricks/CynthiaHarmonPaver.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/bricks/JerryAlvordPaver.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/paversandblasting.htm
I stumbled across a neat online photo editor this week. It sure has a lot of options to modify a photo. I haven’t had much time to play around with Lunapic, but it looks like something I could use on pictures I take with my camera. Check it out at the link below. Also there are a lot of tutorials on Youtube that will help you get started using the program. The program is much like Photoshop.
http://www166.lunapic.com/editor/
Q. What year was alcohol prohibition repealed in Oklahoma?
A. “Butch, as best I remember, the repeal of prohibition came in 1957 in Oklahoma. According to all of the folks pushing the issue, the taxes on liquor sales would solve all of Oklahoma?s fiscal problems and we would all live happily ever after. Of course, a little later on, liquor by the drink and legalized horse racing were going to do the same thing. As far as I know, none of that has come about.” RS
Q. The Pony Bridge is 3,944.33 feet long and contains 38 pony trusses (approximately 100 feet each). Where in Oklahoma is this Pony Bridge?
A. (answer in next week’s T&T)
From This and That newsletter archives of January 3, 1998:
“I CANNOT BELIEVE HOW MANY POSITIVE CHANGES HAVE TAKEN PLACE IN CARTER COUNTY. THAT COURT CLERKS OFFICE WOULD HAVE COMPUTERS SO QUICK, AND THAT JUDGE TATE WOULD BE DOING INITIAL APPEARANCES VIA VIDEO. THAT IS JUST SO WONDERFUL.”
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Gas prices today in the Ardmore area……
http://www.oklahomagasprices.com/index.aspx?mss=152754
Non-ethanol gas (pure gas) stations in the Ardmore area.
https://oklahomahistory.net/puregas.html
Some mail from this week’s MAILBAG…..
“Butch: In one of you past issues you mentioned the trolley system at El Reno, Oklahoma. I though all the trolley lovers would like to know about the system that Dallas, Texas has, it is a must see system and it?s free to ride.” -Larry Paul
Mc Kinney Avenue Transit Authority
McKinney Avenue Transit Authority (MATA)
Formed in 1983, and in operation since 1989, the McKinney Avenue Transit Authority operates antique Streetcars on McKinney Avenue in Dallas Texas. The M-Line’s air-conditioned and heated restored vintage trolleys run 365 days a year, providing free public transportation in Uptown. This nostalgic streetcar links the downtown Dallas Arts District with the trendy shops, galleries and bistros of Uptown, including West Village, where you can transfer to or from DART Rail at Cityplace/Uptown Station. ( https://www.dart.org/riding/stations/cityplaceuptownstation.asp )
An additional connection to DART Rail is expected to be available soon with the completion of an M-Line extension along Olive Street through Klyde Warren Park ( http://www.klydewarrenpark.org/ ) to near Pearl/Arts District Station.( http://www.thedallasartsdistrict.org/ )The city is building a 1.6-mile, single at-grade, dedicated streetcar track extending from near Union Station in downtown Dallas to the Colorado Boulevard and Beckley Avenue intersection in Oak Cliff. The streetcar track would be contained within existing roadway right-of-way along Houston Street, crossing the Trinity River via the Houston Street Viaduct, then transitioning to Zang Boulevard, and finally turning west on Colorado Boulevard before terminating at the Beckley Avenue Intersection. ( http://www.apta.com/resources/hottopics/circulators/Documents/Downtown-Dallas-Streetcar-Fact-Sheet.pdf ) Plans also call for the Oak Cliff and McKinney Avenue systems eventually to be linked.
Butch, The following site offers great pictures and history of the Courtney & Petersburg area of Oklahoma and Northern Texas including Spanish Fort and Illinois Bend. Please visit and give you opinion of the site to your readers of which I read each week.” -max brown
http://www.helpsaveourhistory.com/
“Happy New Year Butch and all, just read your New Year?s Newsletter and my what some history. Keep up the great work.
I want to thank Towana Spivey for the nice words about my excerpt called The Sooner State piece and say thanks for the correction with regard to state boundaries, something I should check out a bit more closely.
Wishing Everyone the best in 2015!”
Go Sooners!
Kenny A. Chaffin
Art: http://www.kacweb.com/pencil.html
Writing: http://www.kacweb.com/poems/index.html“Strive on with Awareness” – Siddhartha Gautama
I loved Daubes too. Especially the shoe dept and later the shoe store next door. They had everything from fabric and patterns to high dollar dresses and accessories. They mixed my face powder while I watched them and I could order the neatest stationery. And the sales they had. I mean SALES!!!! All of my family dressed well and cheap from Daubes. I bought my wedding shoes there and kept them for many years. Does your family think you are crazy for saving such things as a credit card.? Mine always tell me that I save too much. Not as much as they do. I have told them all these years that those things were my memories for when I got old. Well, I am there and I do enjoy all of my memories.” -Frances Long Anthony Dunlap
“Butch, I was at Reagan, Oklahoma home of the Tishomingo National Fish Hatchery today and they had this posted about this site being an old park.” -Doug Williams
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos15a/ReaganOK010615a.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos15a/ReaganOK010615b.jpg
2008 Newsletter Archives: “I remember Reagan, Oklahoma. Pennington creek flowed through there. The skating rink was built over the creek which flowed on south, part of it being diverted under the rink, into the swimming pool, out the pool, over a water wheel and back into the main part of the creek which then continued on to and past the west side of Tishomingo. I’m sure the last 50 years has clouded part of my memory, but I spent a many an hour in the rink and the pool. It was a fish hatchery then, as well as now. The only cabins I recall were the houses, mostly built of rock, were for the manager and for offices.”
https://oklahomahistory.net/maps/ReaganOKmap.jpg
Q. “I was wondering if someone has any photos or school list of Bunker Hill school on Carter County? My daddy went to school there in the 40’s. It was about 2 miles SW of Lone Grove.” -Patty Brawley
A. I found this in the 1923 Carter County School Book
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos15a/BunkerHillSchool.jpg
Listen and silent are spelled with the same letters. Think about it.
My advice for the new year, pay yourself first.
See everyone next week!
Butch and Jill Bridges
Ardmore Oklahoma
PO Box 2
Lone Grove, Oklahoma 73443http://www.7is7.com/otto/countdown.html?year=2015&month=6&date=30&ts=12&hrs=16&min=30&sec=0&tz=-300&lang=en&show=MWd&mode=t&cdir=down&bgcolor=%23CCFFFF&fgcolor=%23000000&title=Retirement%20Countdown
Vicious Dog Attacks in Oklahoma
https://oklahomahistory.net/viciousdogs.html
Bells of Oklahoma
https://oklahomahistory.net/bellpage.html
Carter County Courthouse Paver Project
http://www.brightok.net/cartercounty/pavers
Ardmore High School Criterions Online
http://www.ArdmoreCriterion.com/
Oklahoma Bells: https://oklahomahistory.net/bellpage.html
Bill Hamm’s Cemetery Database
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/carter/cartercm.htm
American Flyers Memorial Fund – Administration Webpage
https://oklahomahistory.net/crash66.html
Official American Flyers Memorial Website
http://www.brightok.net/~wwwafm
Ardmore Army Air Field/Ardmore Air Force Base Website
http://www.brightok.net/~gsimmons
Mirror Site of the Ardmore Army Air Field/Ardmore Air Force Website
https://oklahomahistory.net/airbase/
Carter county schools, past and present
http://community.webshots.com/user/oklahomahistory
Carter County Government Website
http://cartercountyOK.us/
All previous issues of This & That can be found on my Website.
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