Forgotten Ghost Tales and Legends of the Old West

Forgotten Ghost Tales and Legends of the Old West

by Robert F. (Bob) Turpin

Copyright

© 2014 by Bob Turpin – All Rights Reserved

Smashwords Edition

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Dedication

To the folks who like to read about the Old West.

Preface

Their superstitious minds and fear of the paranormal was a natural born curse to our Native American Indians. It was the main reason why most of them would not, or did not, search for wealth buried long ago by their ancestors. Even when they knew where it was hidden beyond a doubt, the Indians refused to go after it. They were also afraid to tell anyone else for fear these folks (others?) would be harmed or killed by some terrible beast or monster from the dark side, or an angry ghost guarding the treasure. Pete Cole interviewed many of the early day Indians and Negros that settled in the Indian Territory for Oklahoma’s historian’s Grant Foreman’s Indian-Pioneer History project for the Oklahoma Historical Society. His writings were very expressive of Indian opinions and experiences, especially where it concerned buried money, ghosts, and the supernatural.

There are hundreds of lonely, out-of-the-way places throughout the Old West where one would expect to encounter a paranormal happening or ghostly apparition – abandoned forts, decaying cabins and homesteads, dangerous river crossings, water holes, crossroads, and meeting places where an unexpected death occurred. If a person really wishes to see a ghost, they usually do sooner or later. If you are an Indian, it probably is sooner. The Indians and the black freedmen, former Indian slaves, believed strongly in ghosts, witches, and goblins. They enjoyed telling good ghost stories about supernatural beings and paranormal happenings. This included strange unexplained phenomena. It was easy for them to let their superstitious minds and lively imaginations run wild.

Personally, I have never experienced an encounter with a supernatural being, angry or friendly. Maybe under certain circumstances and if I tried hard enough and was in the right surroundings, I could dream up one. There is no solid evidence that ghosts are for real as far as I know. But like the Loch Ness Monster, Big Foot, flying saucers, and strange sightings in the midnight sky, who’s to say without a doubt they don’t exist?

I consider myself to be of sound mind and brave of heart. But if I came face to face with any of the above apparitions, my feet would probably not agree with my head. They would, no doubt, keep running until they cleared at least two counties, and counting.

Happy reading,

Bob Turpin

Antlers, Oklahoma

The Ghosts of Brown Springs

They noticed the toppled grave stones, then human bones. Then they were running back to the car.

Brown Springs is located near Thackerville, Oklahoma, in Love County.

Maybe there’s nothing to the old legend other than the usual scenario – the whistling sounds, fidgeting trees, and tricky shadows, said Wayne Eads. Could be Brown Springs got its ghostly reputation from nothing more than having a dead body dumped there a time or two.

Eads paused, speculating. Maybe the scattered, broken graves at the top of the brushy sand hill don’t contain ghosts from the past. Maybe it’s just my imagination playing tricks on me. You know? A feeling someone is watching you from the shadows. Any way you look at it, it’s been twenty-three years since I was there. I still don’t plan to go back. Ever.

Wayne Eads is not the only person to leave Brown Springs believing in ghosts of the past. There are others with similar stories to tell.

One hot and dry afternoon in 1976, Eads, his wife, and a brother-in-law left Interstate Highway 35 and drove down a lonely deserted dirt road. They parked their car at the bottom of a nearby sand hill. Just for kicks and something to do, they started walking down a narrow, faded trail. It brought them to a barbed-wire fence. Eads’ wife had misgivings about continuing on.

It’s getting dark, Wayne. I think we should start back to the car!

Both men laughed.

Come on, we got nothing else to do. You afraid of ghosts or something?

They crossed over the fence and moved on along the trail. The farther they walked, the darker it became.

At the crest of the hill, they saw a toppled grave stone. Looking closer, they saw exposed bones. Human remains. This sent a shockwave of fear through all of them.

The three raced back down the hill. Eads was bare-footed and the sharp sandburs were like tiny needles pricking his feet and ankles. When they reached the spot where they left the car, they found to their shock and dismay that it was not where they left it - it was moved a short distance away. Eads’ wife and brother-in-law told Eads he had just forgotten where he left it.

Eads told them in anger, I know where I left the damn car, and it isn’t where I left it.

It was crazy, Eads later told friends. We were scared to death trying to get out of there. The damn place is haunted. You get a weird feeling when you’re up there. The air is thick and heavy, and you feel like evil eyes are watching your every move.

Wayne Eads, an honest man with a good reputation, was a tire plant worker from Lone Grove, Oklahoma.

~ ~ ~

Toi Bone recalls the time some boys took her and a friend to Brown Springs in an attempt to scare them.

"It was late evening when we reached the Springs. The air felt damp and moist. It was hard to get a deep breath even though the uphill trail was not that steep nor hard on your feet. A cemetery was at the end of the trail, and on its edge was a good-sized tree with some decaying grave markers around it. The names that were on the markers were hard to read. They had almost faded away over the years from the effects of the weather causing them to crumble.

"As we walked around the tree, we saw a knife stabbed into its trunk. In surprise and astonishment we stopped and stared at it. Fresh blood was dripping to the ground. I turned to face the boys. ‘How in the devil did you guys do that?’

"I could tell instantly from the looks on their faces they were wondering the same things I was, especially about the blood dripping to the ground.

I can tell you, the trip down the hill was much faster than the going up.

~ ~ ~

Most residents of Love County know or have heard about the happenings around Brown Springs. Whether they believe in ghosts or that it is haunted, they won’t say. Many will merely smile and tell you, I don’t know. All I can say is I have never seen one.

There was one intriguing story passed down from generation to generation that especially interested me as a ghost fan. It concerned a family of very evil people. These folks were supposedly into small-animal sacrifices, and contacting the restless souls of outlaws and bandits shot dead by the Texas Rangers.

In 1999, research was being done around Brown Springs regarding a Bigfoot sighting. The spot was on the north side of the Red River, and about a mile east of Interstate 35, off of Exit One. The land was supposedly owned by Leeper Lake, Inc., a private Texas corporation who owns the land just across the Oklahoma border in Texas.

For those brave folks interested in checking out Brown Springs for themselves, it’s not easy to find. Local folks will have to point the way to a cement road that turns into dirt and cuts through a heavily wooded area on the Oklahoma side of the Red River from Texas. Visitors will need to look for two large pipes coming out of the hillside that spill water from the spring above. Brown Springs is a rough and hard climb up that hill.

On the top of Brown Springs hill is the old cemetery. Historical reports list twenty-six people buried there. Most of these folks died in the late 1800s. Four died as infants, four more died before they were five years old. All but ten were younger than twenty-five when they passed away. Only about twelve or less grave markers are still visible. Most have been broken or moved. One marker was a tree log split in half with the letters carved into the smooth side of it.

Kenneth D. Bacon, a Love County prosecutor and judge, supposedly wrote about one special marker in his book, Red River Prosecutor:

As I stepped over the old fence I saw the grave marker teeter and then topple over, said Bacon. It made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. That marker had weathered storms, winter cold, summer heat, for all these years. At the same moment I was looking at it, it simply fell over. It was a weird feeling. I stood the marker up again before I left.

On a trip to the old cemetery, Butch Bridges of Ardmore, Oklahoma, took a picture of one child’s grave stone. It read, Tis a little grave, but O! have care for world-wide hopes are buried there. How much of light, how much of joy, is buried in a darling boy.

Mr. Bridges was known for being a level-headed fellow who, through his web-site This & That was a reliable and very entertaining reporter on southern Oklahoma history in 1997. What he saw when he scanned the picture of the child’s grave for his computer gave him quite a kick in the pants.

In the upper left corner of the picture he saw a shadowy image of a child’s face.