This and That Newsletter
A Weekly Publication

www.OklahomaHistory.net

Vol 15  Issue 769      Circulation 5,000       October 20, 2011

PO Box 2

Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402

email address:  butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net

580-657-8616


The other day a Reader in Healdton wrote in with the following:

"Duane and I was talking the other day about the railroad track that ran through Healdton and I got to thinking, does anyone have a map of the lay out of the tracks in Healdton? Where did they go North and South? I wasn't living here in Healdton when they had an actual running train, but remember the train tracks that ran across Hwy 76."

I contacted Garth Hoard here in Lone Grove, I consider him a map maker extraordinaire, and asked for his help. Garth came through in flying colors!

"I don't remember much detail on in to Healdton last time I looked. Now, south of town down towards the Ringling line is a different story. I remember having pretty good luck following the railbed all the way from Cobalt Jct (kind of a triangle of track ___/_\___ ) on the aerials. One of the better aerials was that county map you gave me with roads, streets, houses, creeks, boundaries, etc along with the aerial overlay. The line crossed US70 about a half-mile west of Zaneis and wandered NNW towards town. It crossed Lincoln about a quarter mile west of Hospital Road. and best I can tell, crossed Highway 76 about half a block east of the red light (just east of the old Ford house).

I've attached a screencap from that map with the bed highlighted best as I can tell. It looks a lot better zoomed in but in order to cover the range from south of 70 up thru 76 I had to zoom that far out. Also a screencap from my garmin topo software where someone had already done most of the work. Hope that a little helpful."
-Garth

http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/HealdtonRRmap1.jpg

http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/HealdtonRRmap2.jpg

http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/HealdtonRRmap3.jpg

Thanks Garth for the step back in time when the railroad was king.

Also I received an email this week regarding some graves NW of Bromide, Oklahoma.  It seems there are several people buried there, but only two with granite markers.

"These graves are on private property. We are friends with the guy who owns the quarry and the land that holds the springs of Bromide. The scientists were out a couple of months ago and stated that the water from the springs is 10,500 years old. Amazing. The red star is where the graveyard is. The ground is sunken in where these two are laid, but there are three or so more that have no headstones that are sunken in as well. I'm wondering if the Jackson one is related to the family who started Bromide."

http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/BromideOKgravesMap.jpg

http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/BromideOKpond.jpg

"p.s. someone drove a Army Reserve Hummer off the cliffs in that picture and it was in the water. They ditched it on the land. It was about 2003 if my memories serves me correct." -Drew Mixon

Here are the two grave markers NW of Bromide

Lizzie Guinn 1880 - 1912

http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/LizzieGuinn.jpg

Annie D. Jackson 1859 - 1919

http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/AnnieJackson.jpg

A Reader told me today he was mowing over in the northeast part of Ardmore, hit something metal, and when he picked it up, it was an 8 lb cannon ball from the Civil War.  Bet that never happens again in Ardmore!

U.S. drought monitor

http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html

From This and That newsletter archives of October 24, 1998:
I received a bar of lye soap in the mail the other day from Richard Hamner in Alabama! He's been making it for years, and I will have to say, it is a beautiful bar of soap... smooth, rounded, in a colorful package. Here's a pic of the box he markets his lye soap in.

http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/HamnerLyeSoap1998.jpg

BTW, Richard lives just down the road from Ardmore.... Ardmore, Alabama (not Oklahoma) that is! Below is his story of how he started making lye soap years ago:

"We started making soap about 25 years ago after my mother-in-law got us all together to pass on some of the skills she had learned growing up. We made butter by churning fresh cow's milk, we made preserves by picking fresh fruit and cooking it down, and she also taught us how to make soap. The butter and preserves were consumed with great gusto, but making them never quite caught on with us."

"But the soap stuck. We continued to make it, learn about it, and refine it. Over the years, as we studied more and more about how to make it, we discovered that handmade soap, if it is properly made, can be far superior to commercial soap. Commercial soap has lots of additives, and it has all of the glycerin removed that is naturally produced during the soapmaking process. The glycerin is the great moisturizing component in natural soap."

"Soap is made by a chemical reaction. The reaction occurs when vegetable and animal oils are mixed together with caustic soda (otherwise known as "lye"). That means that ALL soap is "lye soap". This is probably the biggest misconception about soap in all of America. But there is no lye in soap, because all of the lye has been reacted with the oils to produce soap and glycerin."

"We use olive oil, coconut oil, and tallow as our oils. When these oils are mixed in the proper proportions with sodium lye, it makes the best soap we have ever seen, even if we do say so ourselves!"

http://www.gmsoap.com

Q.  What hotel served as the capitol building until 1917 when the current capitol was finished.
A:   The Lee-Huckins Hotel served as the capitol building until 1917 when the current capitol was finished.

Q.   Those who snuck over the boundaries the night before the Land Run to claim the area around Oklahoma City are known as what?
A.    (answer in next week's newsletter)

Gas prices today in the Ardmore area......

http://www.oklahomahistory.net/gasprices.html

Some mail from this week's MAILBAG.....

Thousands upon thousands of people would go to Google and type in ?what is my IP? only to immediately click the first link to find out. Now Google offers the answer right along with your query results. Visit Google and enter a search query like ?what is my ip?, ?my ip?, or ?ip address?, and Google displays your public IP address right below your search query. It?s a handy way to find your IP address that saves you that extra click through to a third-party site (we?re sure the folks behind WhatIsMyIPAddress, the first search result, are less than thrilled by the change).

http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/GoogleDisplaysIP.jpg


THE DAVIS NEW - 100 YEARS AGO: A well being drilled in the mountains struck water at 61 feet at the Scott Braden mine three miles southeast of Turner Falls.
The Hennepin correspondent noted there were three stores, a blacksmith shop, gin and saw mill, school building, barber shop, Woodmen of the World hall, a preacher and school teacher, a deputy sheriff, two notaries public,
four fraternal orders and a hotel. There were 94 people, with 22 residences, 11 east of Main Street and 11 west (but we are not divided, the correspondent wrote). The town consisted of 10 blocks and one lane: Auto block, Machinery block, Economy block, Legitimate block, Farm block, Paradise block, Arkansas block, Artesian block, Musical block, Cedar block and Lovers' Lane.
J.G. Dodson advertized that he received a shipment of fresh celery every week.
During a rain and electrical storm, lightning killed a team of horses belonging to W.T. Black, who lived east of Davis.
A football game between Pauls Valley and Davis was to be held at the Greer race track south of town.

Oldies Television   http://www.oldiestelevision.com/
"There have been a continuing discussion about this in many places. The Boy Scout troop in Pawhuska, Oklahoma was organized under Lord Baden-Powell's English organization since there was no Boy Scouts of America at the time. At least that is what many published reports say. Perhaps the BSA makes no mention of this because it was not organized under their auspices."  -Wes Leatherock

http://www.osagecohistoricalmuseum.com/scouts.html


For those of us who love corn on the cob, this is an absolute must see! No mess to preparing it, no silks to try to brush out of the corn, it comes out clean.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnBF6bv4Oe4

October 22nd - Elvis & Fabulous 50's Rock & Roll Revue - Choctaw Event Center - Durant, Oklahoma. By Shawnda Rains Music Showcase

http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/OctoberElvisShow2011.jpg


"I was one of the survivors of the crash. I have never visited Ardmore. I remembered talking with the two survivors who walked out after the crash, but did not remember their names. I and Terry Meyer were not found until long after they thought they had found all survivors. My parents received the visit from Army colonel and chaplain to advise them I was missing and presumed dead. I don't remember the crash or most of the first week after the crash. I saw Terry once in the hospital at Fort Sill before they sent me to Brooke Army Medical Center for my burns. My scars and a shattered right foot remind me of the crash every day." -Dennis Heins heinsdh@msn.com

I've never been one to bet on the weather. -J. Paul Getty

See everyone next week!

Butch and Jill Bridges

PO Box 2
Lone Grove, Oklahoma 73443

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: http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/bellpage.html
American Flyers Memorial Fund - Administration Webpage
http://www.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
http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/airbase/
Carter county schools, past and present
http://community.webshots.com/user/oklahomahistory
Carter County Government Website
http://www.brightok.net/cartercounty/
Ardmore School Criterions
http://www.ArdmoreCriterion.com

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