Since I started my Oklahoma History website in April 1996, the name Don Pinkston has been mentiioned about 10 times over the years starting in 2002 by others. Don is a local famed artist for decades who has did many paintings in charcoal, pen and oil. They are owned by people all over the country, with many on display at area businesses. Don even once retrieved a petrified buffalo skull from a crossing in the Washita River. He has displayed it several times at local area banks. It weighs 200 pounds.
I have never owned or even saw in person one of Don’s painting….. until this week when a friend gave me Don’s “oil well” charcoal painting. It is proudly displayed in our living room.
The drawing has Don’s signature and date in the lower right hand coner.
I do have a picture on my website of a sketching sent in by a reader for the Dougherty Depot that Don did in 1978.
Ever once in a blue moon I see a drawing by Don come up for auction on eBay and other websites. The artist Don J. Pinkston resides in Dougherty, Oklahoma today.
Below is a photo of the old Gene Autry General Store back in it’s heyday.
Dry goods store fire at Wirt, Oklahoma
This month has really been a productive month in finding Oklahomans with unclaimed insurance at the State Treasurers Office in OKC. I appreciate those of you who have helped find these people, some are not easy to find. https://oklahomahistory.net/unclaimed-property-in-oklahoma/
HAM Talk by KC5JVT via Echolink
Yesterday there were 70 HAMs who checked-in the Boredome Breaker net control. HAMs check-in from all over the U.S. and overseas. Any licensed HAM reading this is welcome to check-in between 12 Noon and 2pm Central Time. I hope to hear some of you HAMs coming across the airwave soon!
From this week’s Mailbag
Butch: The photo that Cass sent you of my donation to the Greater Southwest Historical Museum included the flight suit & gloves I wore while going through Naval Aviation Training. The article here was when I received my commission as an officer in the Navy. -Steve Miller
Below is from my newsletter archives dated
August 28, 1999 – Issue 123
This is a very old 1 qt. can of “MERIT” Paraffin Base Motor Oil made by the CATO Oil & Grease Company in Oklahoma City. It also states: Manufactured from 100% Pure Virgin Stock
This is a beautiful and unusual check on the Ponca Agency, Oklahoma Territory 1892. “J.H. Sherburne, U.S. Indian Trader.” Dealer in Ponies and Cattle. Check for $11.75. Drawn on the First National Bank, Arkansas City, Kansas.
Norman is the capital seat of Cleveland county in Oklahoma. The Cleveland County Sheriffs Department now has a website thanks to the work of my friend Mike Holt. Mike helps keep all the sheriff’s computers running at Cleveland County and he is using homestead.com for their website. Homestead makes Page making easy!
“Hey Butch, …I noticed when going through Muskogee, Oklahoma on the southern part of town, there is an antique shop that has a wooden fence lining their walkway. All on top of it are bells. Also, going into Chouteau, Oklahoma at one of the restaurants, is a huge bell on a stand out by the highway. If you ever go road-tripping, may want to go up that way.”
“This is a photo taken the summer of 1950 of “2 Lakes Skyway Courts” located at the SE corner of Lake Murray State Park. My in-laws, Bert and Mabel Paschall, operated the courts for years. It was built in 1948 when there was very little activity over on the SE side of the lake. The paved road in the park stopped at the state cabins then. That’s where the lodge is these days. Few people came over to the SE part of the lake then and we pretty well had that part of the lake to ourselves most of the time. When 2 Lakes Skyway Courts first opened for business there was an airplane landing strip in front of the store. After two plane crashes within the first three years which killed some people, Bert closed the air strip, changed the name to Paschall Village, and planted peanuts where the air strip was. When the state finally paved the road all the way around the lake more and more people came to the SE part of the lake and frequented the store. Weekends during the summer were really busy. My wife and I would sometimes come to visit for the weekend and would end up working most of the time. If you ever came over to that part of the lake and stopped at the store, I probably at some time gassed your vehicle or sold you some minnows. Bert and Mabel sold the store and cabins in 1972. They are no longer with us and the store has long since burned and been torn down so we haven’t been there in years.”
Just 40 miles south of Ardmore, across the Red River into Texas, is Gainesville, Texas. In 1880 my mother’s grandparents moved from Altoona, PA to Gainesville and that was our start in this area. Gainesville is the county seat for Cooke county. The Cooke county Courthouse has an original working clock still in their courthouse. In February 1920 the people of Cooke county started a fund to purchase a clock and put it in the courthouse as a memorial for those of that county that gave their lives in World War I. In April of 1920 county commissioners award a contract of $2,800 to the E. Howard Clock Company to install the clock as a memorial to those of the great war. In December that same year the clock arrived at the courthouse. In January 1921 the clock in the dome of the Cooke county courthouse started ticking. Here are several pictures I took of this historical masterpiece.
https://oklahomahistory.net/love-county-courthouse-clock-marietta-oklahoma/
“When one door closes, another opens. But we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we fail to see the one that has opened for us.” -Alexander Graham Bell
Butch and Jill Bridges
Ardmore, Oklahoma
580-490-6823
