UPDATE: within 4 hours eleven friends donated to my gofundme webpage last week completing the $400 needed to increase the oklahomahistory.net storage space on the Server for photos, newsletters, etc., from 10 gigabytes to 20 gigabytes. That extra storage space will allow uploading pictures until 2032. A big thank you to those 11 who stepped up and made it possible. Friends make like worth living.
Someone asked me the other day where Rock Creek was located south of Ardmore. It is located about 7 miles west of I-35 and the Lake Murray exit (Exit 24). I took this photo in 2002 and enhanced it with AI. It’s a beautiful place and I can image the baptisms that took place there back in the day.
This is a picture someone sent me a long time ago of a baptism being performed at the Rock Creek crossing.
Below is the location of Rock Creek on the map.
I enhanced this 1959 group photo of the Ardmore Police Department with AI and the photo was really cleared up. AI is amazing when it comes to historical photos.
Below is the original 1959 kinda blurry photo. The original photo was given to me by Captain Rick Feiler (1935-2011)
Roosevelt is a town in Kiowa County, Oklahoma. The population was 248 at the 2010 census, a decline of 11.4 percent from 283 in 2000. The town was named for President Theodore Roosevelt. Below is a picture I enhanced with AI. Date unknown but I assume before Statehood in1907.
Some mail from this week’s MAILBAG….
Q. Was the railroad track running behind Michelin installed when the plant was built in 1970 or was it there before the plant?
A. Hi Butch, I don’t know the exact date they were installed but they have been there long before the tire plant came along. They are part of the line that went to Ringling from Ardmore. The original line that left Ardmore west to Ringling, Lone Grove, Wilson, Healdton and Ringling ran where Grand is now from where the Ringling Road depot is still standing just off Washington. I’m not completely sure but the line may have been switched from where Grand is and moved to the south where the is present day about 1926 when Santa Fe purchased the Ringling Road and operated it till Oct 1976. The line from near the tire plant out west toward Ringling was all taken up by 1979 By that time the tire plant was built and used what was left of the original line. -Dwane Stevens
Just a note to say that your weekly newsletter shall be missed by many. I began reading it when looking for information about the Confederate Veterans Home and the Rosehill Cemetery Confederate Section. Have been reading it for many years now. Has been an enjoyable experience. I am a native Texan. Had many ancestors living in Oklahoma. My parents were native Okies.
Patrick “Pat” Wallace
Athens, Texas
HAM Radio Talk By Butch Bridges KC5JVT
Allstar node # 58735 – Echolink # 101960 – HamsOverIP # 103010
The Boredom Breaker Net out of Claremore, Oklahoma has been growing. The past few days 60 to 80 Ham Radio operators have checked-in from all over the U.S. and the world. The Net is held from 12 noon to 2pm Oklahoma time, 7 days a week. Hope to hear some of you Hammers checking in!
Below is from my newsletter archives
March 2000 – When the Carter County courthouse was built in 1910, the builders inscribed some famous quotes above each of the entrances. The problem was a person could never read them during daylight hours. The only way to read what was inscribed above each door in the granite stone, was to go there at night, stand under the entrance, and shine a flashlight up, causing a shadowing of the lettering. A reader told me about this months ago. On a Saturday morning I went to the basement, got a ladder and decided to darken the lettering to make them readable using Lithichrome paint given to me by Mary Wilson in a 2 oz bottle (Wilson Monuments in Lone Grove). Needless to say I was really nervous as I painted in each letter, if one drop got outside a letter, it can’t be removed from the granite. The one below is by Seneca, a famous Roman philosopher, statesman, and dramatist (c. 4 BC).
Below is the other quotes above the Carter County courthouse entrances and the philosopher’s name:
The safety of the state is the highest law -Justinian
The punishment can be remitted, the crime is everlasting -Ovid
The foundations of justice are that no one should suffer wrong –Cicero
Prosperity gives every man his true honor –Tacitus
“Quemadmodum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est.”
Latin: “A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer’s hand.” -Seneca
I’m so glad a national emergency was averted this week. Had the strike went forward, Twinkies could have been a thing of the past. What would this country be like without Twinkies? Twinkies is an institution all by themselves.
“When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the morning light, for your life and strength. Give thanks for your food, and the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies with yourself.” – Tecumseh, Shawnee Chief
Butch and Jill Bridges
Ardmore Oklahoma
580-490-6823
https://oklahomahistory.net