Hallowe’en Mystery Hangs 
In Fiction Tale Related of Old Fort In Arbuckles
Special To The Oklahoman Nov 1st 1908

Davis Okla., Oct. 31. In the darkness of a canyon cave near Old Fort 
Arbuckle there resides an oracle. What it is no living person knows.

Certain, it is that some natural formation of earth, stone or timber 
stands suspended in such a manner that the circulation of winds 
within the cave creates an uncanny sound that drives one, If he 
suspects the supernatural or is a believer In ghost dances or spirit 
walks to think that an Imp of the nether region is playing a funeral 
dirge while his fellows dance in glee during the cremation of a lost 
soul. So vivid is the noise on occasion the superstitious folk of that 
neighborhood lock their doors tight at night and even in summer 
wrap them selves securely in bed covers to keep out the sound. A 
few have been driven to other lands and It Is said that for years 
during the early days of Indian Territory, even horse thieves, murderers 
and outlaws shied from the place, suspecting they heard omens of 
ill luck or the song of an oracle betokening the approach of the posse. 

The mysterious cave is only a half-mile from the site of Fort Arbuckle 
where 40 years ago United States soldiers were stationed to guard the 
frontier against marauding Indians. History relates that a battle was 
fought in the canyon and that the bodies of dead soldiers were thrown 
into the cave. Unfortunately for sushy, perstitious clans, the date of the 
battle was October 31, the day of ghosts. Hob-goblins, walking spirits 
and other supernutura1 phenomena that are, pre historically speaking, 
in spectacular evidence when darkness falls upon the valleys and hills.

On the night of that battle day either some of the dead came to life, 
or persons not dead had been pitched into the cave, or else disturbing 
spooks walked over the bodies with mysterious weeping, for out of the 
inkiness came inhuman sounds, spirits, shrieking, screaming, or again 
doleful, dreary, delirious now the groans of a maniac sinking Into oblivion, 
now the shrieks of an expiring lost soul now the music of Hades harps 
for the frantic dance of the demons.

A pioneer heard it that night. He slew Indians all day and was tired at 
sundown. He lay upon a patch of grass in the valley of the canyon and 
tried to sleep. Repose deserted him. Rest was frightened away. He lay 
all night with his eyes open, staring at a heaven full of pretty stars. He 
tried to peer beyond the stars, straining his ears for heavenly music, 
sought to forget the awful night of spookdom. But he couldn’t. Neither 
could he move his prostrate body when he tried. Not a muscle was active. 
The noises would not cease. All night he heard them and until the sun 
rose in the morning. That day in a cabin of the Arbuckles mountains 
the man told his story. That day the family in the cabin moved out. And 
from that day afterwards never was this man seen. It is related that the
encroachments of the cave drew him back to the canyon and into the
darkness. The superstitious believe that he is ringmaster, bandmaster 
and dance master for the demons, that he manages, directs and forever 
superintends the Hallow’en festivals of the nether world whose vaporings 
issue to mortals through the mysterious medium of the cave.

Old Indian assert that the strange sounds are sweet music in their ears, 
and years ago the war chiefs assembled there for weeks at a stretch for 
inspiration and to hear the repetition of a supposed trust told by the 
oracle that they should again one day be given back their hunting grounds 
and their liberties.

Save on the anniversary of the Indian battle only a dull, uncanny effusion 
issues from the cave, the medicine men declaring that the gods of the 
underworld hold pent up their most splendid music for release on anni-
versary night.

Once a party of courageous school girls ventured near the mouth of the 
cave in the darkness of a Halloween night. The music was just beginning. 
They waited in silence for an hour, fifteen minutes, and five and three 
quarter seconds, when suddenly a great was flashed over the entrance 
of the cave and in an instant a great mirror was flashed in it’s place, one 
by one the girls creeped near to the mirror and each saw portrayed upon 
the glass the form, face and figure of a man. His image was impressed 
indelibly upon their mind, and there after she sought for a hero, a husband, 
who looked like the man in the mirror. These girls were Indians and the 
story is told among the tribes that each was married to a man whose image 
she saw in the mirror........