PO Box 2, Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402
Email: butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net
Phone: 580-490-6823
We now have over $500 in pledges for the Healdton, Oklahoma’s police officers memorial who have been killed in the line of duty. Billy Wilson of Wilson Monuments in Lone Grove has suggested a grey granite marker that we will probably go with because of affordability, about $500 dollars. It will be 36 inches wide by nearly 36 inches tall and sit on a concrete base. Thanks to those of you who have pledged so far in helping make this memorial possible. We will be calling on those pledges soon.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos14b/GraniteExampleA.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos14b/GraniteExampleB.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/hutchison.html
Hope to see some of you Saturday at the Chickasaw Cultural Center in Sulphur. The Chickasaw Nation is having the opening for their new Dugout Canoe Exhibit. Free admission on Saturday.
http://chickasawcountry.com/events/view/dugout-canoe-exhibit
PFC Phillip Falcona Gaines
Memorial Bridge Dedication
Saturday, September 27, 2014
10 AM
State Highway 53 over the Washita River
Gene Autry, Oklahoma
https://oklahomahistory.net/maps/GainesMemorialBridge092714.jpg
I received an email this week from Brad Walker in Australia. He updated me on the trip they are on from the east coast to the west coast of Australia.
Saturday 09/20/14 “G’day Butch, My name is Brad Walker in Australia, and you chased up info on what turned out to be a dodgy Deputy sheriff badge, via John and Shelley Hynard. I don’t know whether to thank you for that or not. Thanks anyway. John said you were interested in our trip we are on. We weren’t crossing the Simpson Desert but we were traveling the Canning Stock Route through Western Australia. This is a stock route used in the early 1900’s to walk stock from the north east of Western Australia towards the markets in the south. The route travels through deserts all way. The track was pushed through by Canning and his party who dug wells about every 40km along the track to provide water for the cattle. The route itself is not a maintained road. We traveled most of it, starting from Billiluna in the north to Wiluna in the south, a distance of about 2000km and had to cross about 750 sand hills with heights up to about 40 feet. It took us 18 days to complete.
I suppose you have corrugations on your gravel roads in your home state. The corrugations along this track were so bad that the heat from the shock absorbers on some of the trucks was enough to melt the mounting bushes and blister the paint. There are no services along the route although it passes close to two aboriginal communities where we were able to purchase diesel, at $3.40 a litre, about twice the price we pay in the major cities. Drinking water had to be carried with us but we ended up drinking water from some of the wells that had been restored. The water was clean but you had to strain it through your teeth to clear the frogs, snakes etc.
There were 9 vehicles in our group to start with, although some had to leave before the finish. As John said they were all Toyotas, Nissans and such apart from our Land Rover Defender. I would love to say that we had no trouble but the track was so rough that the stone guards???, inside the rear brake discs just fatigued from the constant shaking and fell off. We also had a number of tyre punctures amongst the group, from the sharp rocks. The deserts we traveled through were deserts in name only. There had been some rain in 2013 and there were a lot of wild flowers and spinifex grass covered most of the ground. It was really very pretty. Google the Canning Stock Route in Western Australia and you should see plenty of photographs. If you have any questions give us a yell at me and I will try to answer. It might take a little time though as we are still well away from civilization and internet reception is fleeting. Hoodoo for now.” -Brad
Wednesday 09/24/14 “Hi Butch, Sad to say but the really interesting part of our trip is over and we are now drifting along the Western Australian coastline. We are currently at S26 10’31” E122 31’02” Have a look on Google earth, it is pretty spectacular. The amazing thing is that we have phone reception, possibly because we are only a short distance from the park ranger residence. I will give you the coordinates of some of our camp sites along the Canning, have a look on Google Earth if you can.
08/24/14 S19 12′ E127 47′
08/25/14 S20 09′ E126 40′
09/01/14 S22 34′ E123 55′
09/04/14 S22 27’49” E122 15’40”
09/07/14 S23 45’16” E122 31’02”
09/09/14 S24 35’39” E121 52’28”
09/10/14 S25 14’27” E121 06’00”
09/24/14 S26 10’31” E122 31’02” (location at time of email) (Lake Carnegie)
The rest of the times we just camped where we could find enough room for the group to spread out a little. Where we are now is quite interesting. A Dutch sailor, Dirk Hartog, touched here in 1616 and landed on the island that is only a couple of miles from here. He is believed to be the first European to land on Australia. Looking at the country, it is nothing but sand hills and low bushes. There is no fresh water, no creeks, no rivers, nothing. The nearest town to here, Denham, charge their rate payers 1.4 cents per litre for reticulated water. Anyway there are fish to be caught. Will
keep in touch when able. Hoodoo for now. -Brad and Nellie
Here is a map I made in Google Earth of the campsites Brad mentioned above. The only thing wrong with this view is you can’t zoom out to see the whole area and the location of the trail they followed.
https://oklahomahistory.net/maps/AustraliaTripMap.jpg
If you have Google Earth on your computer, you can click on the link below, give Google Earth a minute to load, and I have the placemarks pinned in Google Earth. In Google Earth you can zoom in or out to see their entire continent and the placemarks.
Speaking of Australia, my friend Steve Moran on the east coast of that country (north of Sidney) sent me an email and pictures this week of the kangaroos that are taking over in his area.
Friday 09/19/14 “Hi Butch, Took some photos of some kangaroos yesterday, thought you might like them We are getting 60 to 70 a day, trouble with them they are competing for the grass with the cattle and we are getting out numbered.”
Regards
Steve
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos14b/Kangaroos091914a.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos14b/Kangaroos091914b.jpg
I think next time Steve makes a trip to Oklahoma I’ll ask him to bring a male and female kangaroo with him. I’d to see them hopping around our property.
September 1954 – The newest revelation concerning Old 1108, the Santa Fe Railroad Engine, recently moved to the fairgrounds, is that kids are not ringing the bell at all hours of the evening and keeping neighborhood folks awake. Adults are ringing the bell for the sport they get out of the exercise.
September 1965 – A new state law says “No junk or salvage yard shall be located nearer than 50 feet back of the right away limits of any road or highway.” There is a penalty of $10.00 per day. Authorities say 11 junkyards in the county have been notified of the new law, including two in Lone Grove.
Every want to make a PDF file from a scanned document or photo? i2pdf (image to pdf) is a fast and compact application built to create Adobe PDF documents from a collection of images, typically scanned from a paper source or in form of digital photographs. Its very easy to use.
Q. When the U.S. Congress formed the Oklahoma Territory in 1890, what we now know as the state was in two parts called the Twin Territories. What were the names of those two territories?
A. In May 1890, Congress formed the Oklahoma Territory. This territory combined with the Indian Territory was called the ?Twin Territories? of Oklahoma.
Q. Who was the famous radio commentator and news columnist born in Tulsa and always said during his commentaries, “…when we return, the rest of the story.”
A. (answer in next week’s T&T)
From This and That newsletter archives of September 23, 2000:
“I reminded me of a story my mother told me years ago about the old First National bank on Main Street here in Ardmore. It seemed like in the 20s the “in thing” for the men to do was stand in front of the banks and swap stories. His two daughters, my mother Louise and her sister Marie, were teens in the 1920s and the two figured out if they asked their dad, Stanley Carmon, for money when he was standing in front of the bank with all his friends, that he would give them some. He didn’t want to refuse them money and look bad in front of all his friends standing in front of the bank. But Louise and Marie knew they were going to get a whooping from their dad when they got home, but it was worth it in their opinion. Boy, that’s getting spending money the hard way.” -Butch
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“I took a train ride last Saturday, my first since the 1960s. I needed to attend a meeting in Ft Worth, so I opted to ride the Heartland Flyer from Ardmore to Ft Worth last Saturday. My one-way ticket was only $13, a real bargain in my opinion for the 100 mile trip! I boarded the train at the Ardmore Depot, found myself an empty seat, and waited for the lady to come by collecting the train fare. In about five minutes we were heading south!
We made good time during the first half of the trip, arriving in Gainesville, Texas in about 40 minutes. This is about the same time it would take to travel by car from Ardmore to Gainesville.
I knew the schedule said the trip would take 2 and one-half hours, a longer ride then by automobile. The extra time came into play the closer we got to Ft Worth because of all the crossings. I was looking out my window when we crossed the Red River that separates Oklahoma from Texas and the train Conductor said the river had been renamed Red Creek. He was referring to the severe drought this whole area was in. I did notice how dry it was everywhere, the grass dead and brown from the lack of rain.
About 25 miles north of Ft Worth we were going through the little town of Justin, Texas. Justin is the home of the Justin Boot Company and to make those cowboy boots requires a number of large buildings in Justin. I owned Justin boots when I was a teen, they are nice boots, but I never realized they were made just 75 miles south of Ardmore.
Even taking into account all the crossings going in to Ft Worth, we made the station 15 minutes a ahead of schedule. My cousin, Carol Jean Cole and her daughter Laura was waiting to pick me up and take me to my meeting at the Holiday Inn in Arlington, a Dallas suburb. But before we got to the Holiday Inn, they treated me to some of that delicious Colter BBQ. I don’t think I have ever eaten Texas BBQ that wasn’t delicious!” -Butch
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“According to the book “Oklahoma Place Names” by George H. Shirk -1974 Pg.257 WILLIS, In Marshall County, 15 miles south of Madill. Post office established March 15, 1886. Named for Britt Willis, long-time local resident. WILLIS Marshall County Section 6 Township 8 S Range 5 E”
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“The hotel above where Montgomery Wards used to be on Main was called the Marquette Hotel. The Ford Hotel was located on North Washington Street about half-way between Second Avenue, Northwest and Broadway. It was just south of the old bicycle shop across the street from The Daily Ardmoreite office when they were on Washington Street.”
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Gas prices today in the Ardmore area……
http://www.oklahomagasprices.com/index.aspx?mss=152754
Check gas prices by town or zip code anywhere in U.S.
http://www.kmov.com/traffic/gas-buddy
Non-ethanol gas (pure gas) stations in the Ardmore area.
https://oklahomahistory.net/puregas.html
Some mail from this week’s MAILBAG…..
“In your 1900 archives (mentioned in this week’s T&T) a reader was asking about the whereabouts of Willis township and I presume that you were able to provide an answer, but if not: In 1890 it was located in the Chickasaw Nation, I.T. about 15 miles N. E. of Thackerville; S.E of Marietta; West of Lark; S.W. of Powell. ‘Twas located in a bend of the Red River.” -Roy Kendrick
“This week’s mail had an article about the time in Ardmore when the train engine 1108, was moved down to where it stands to this day, on the west side of Hardy Murphy Coliseum. I remember that so well…the laying of RR tracks down the streets and moving the engine, then removing the tracks, and placing them farther down the street in front of the engine, etc. My dad, Clarence Patrick, worked for the Santa Fe RR and was one of the men who laid those tracks and made the 1108’s last “trip” possible. I wish I had some pictures, especially with him in them, during that history of our grand town. He would come home each day and tell us about the process and how far they’d gotten the engine moved. I have taken all 3 of my children and grandchildren out there and have snapshots of them by the train. In a few of those, with my children, my dad is in the picture. Our oldest grandson graduated from HS in ’06 and for his casual Senior Pictures, he was down by the Depot and I had my dad’s hard hat he used for working on the RR and one of his plaid flannel shirts, which we hung on the post of the fence that is on the east side of the depot. We were elated that there was a SFRR train engine parked on the tracks and some of his pictures shows Colby, my dad’s hat & shirt, with the train engine in the background. In a few of them, he was standing up on the back of a caboose with the hat and shirt and you could see “ARDMORE” on the depot. It’s pictures such as these, that combine our past, present, and eventually will be our future, that I treasure so much. Thanks, NEB1…have a great Fall! From NEB2. (For those wondering, what Butch and I call each other refer to our elementary school days – days gone by, but never lost). 🙂 -Diane Patrick Armstrong
“Butch: Thanks for the info, as I have just used the JRT (Junkware Removal Tool), and it worked well. I really appreciate the Tech News that you give us from time to time. Thanks again.” -Scott Bumgarner
Followup: I ran JRT and below is the junk it found and removed from my computer. -Butch
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Junkware Removal Tool (JRT) by Thisisu
Version: 6.2.0 (09.22.2014:1)
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium x64
Ran by Bridges on Tue 09/23/2014 at 19:51:53.67
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~ Services
~~~ Registry Values
~~~ Registry Keys
Successfully deleted: [Registry Key] HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Tracing\ApnStub_RASAPI32
Successfully deleted: [Registry Key] HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Tracing\ApnStub_RASMANCS
Successfully deleted: [Registry Key] HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Tracing\AskSLib_RASAPI32
Successfully deleted: [Registry Key] HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Tracing\AskSLib_RASMANCS
Successfully deleted: [Registry Key] HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Tracing\HPSF_Tasks_RASAPI32
Successfully deleted: [Registry Key] HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Tracing\HPSF_Tasks_RASMANCS
Successfully deleted: [Registry Key] HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Tracing\msntask_RASAPI32
Successfully deleted: [Registry Key] HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Tracing\msntask_RASMANCS
Successfully deleted: [Registry Key] HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Tracing\SoftonicDownloader_for_photo-editor[1]_RASAPI32
Successfully deleted: [Registry Key] HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Tracing\SoftonicDownloader_for_photo-editor[1]_RASMANCS
Successfully deleted: [Registry Key] HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Tracing\ApnStub_RASAPI32
Successfully deleted: [Registry Key] HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Tracing\ApnStub_RASMANCS
Successfully deleted: [Registry Key] HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Tracing\AskSLib_RASAPI32
Successfully deleted: [Registry Key] HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Tracing\AskSLib_RASMANCS
Successfully deleted: [Registry Key] HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Tracing\HPSF_Tasks_RASAPI32
Successfully deleted: [Registry Key] HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Tracing\HPSF_Tasks_RASMANCS
Successfully deleted: [Registry Key] HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Tracing\msntask_RASAPI32
Successfully deleted: [Registry Key] HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Tracing\msntask_RASMANCS
Successfully deleted: [Registry Key] HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Tracing\SoftonicDownloader_for_photo-editor[1]_RASAPI32
Successfully deleted: [Registry Key] HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Tracing\SoftonicDownloader_for_photo-editor[1]_RASMANCS
Successfully deleted: [Registry Key] “hkey_current_user\software\apn pip”
~~~ Files
Successfully deleted: [File] “C:\Users\Bridges\appdata\local\google\chrome\user data\default\local storage\http_www.azlyrics.com_0.localstorage”
Successfully deleted: [File] “C:\Users\Bridges\appdata\local\google\chrome\user data\default\local storage\http_www.azlyrics.com_0.localstorage-journal”
Successfully deleted: [File] “C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\ebay.lnk”
~~~ Folders
Successfully deleted: [Folder] “C:\Users\Bridges\AppData\Roaming\getrighttogo”
Failed to delete: [Folder] “C:\Users\Bridges\appdata\locallow\billeo”
Successfully deleted: [Folder] “C:\Users\Bridges\appdata\locallow\delta”
Successfully deleted: [Folder] “C:\Program Files (x86)\eusing free registry cleaner”
Successfully deleted: [Folder] “C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\free registry cleaner”
Successfully deleted: [Folder] “C:\ProgramData\ask”
~~~ Event Viewer Logs were cleared
Scan was completed on Tue 09/23/2014 at 19:55:58.04
End of JRT log
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“To change and to change for the better are two different things.”
Old German Proverb
See everyone next week!
Butch and Jill Bridges
Ardmore Oklahoma
PO Box 2
Lone Grove, Oklahoma 73443
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
Save on long distance calls, just a couple cents a minute!
http://www.CheapLongDistance.org
Ardmore High School Criterions Online
http://www.ArdmoreCriterion.com/
Oklahoma Bells: https://oklahomahistory.net/bellpage.html
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://www.brightok.net/cartercounty/
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