Comments

Volume 7, Issue 13 - Feature #195

EERIE OKLAHOMA

I have written a book about the ghost towns of Ashley and Short Springs in Alfalfa County. I also have information on the ghost town of Ingersoll. If you would want any information about these 3 ghost towns I would be glad to share.

Ila Wessels - 2005-04-04 08:48:46

About 35 years ago, when my grandparents still lived, I scoured the countryside in Grant County searching for milk cans and fruit jars. It got me started being a amateur archeologist and antique bottle collector. Old abandoned barns and houses yielded fruit jars and hand blown bottles that turned me on. Until my poor old back gave out, I excavated wells, former outhouse sites, and old dumps in and around the New Orleans area. There we've recovered bottles and artifacts dating back to as early as 1800. In Oklahoma, one is lucky to get back prior to 1900. Bottles were no longer hand blown after about 1910, when machines took over the task. I opened up old root cellars on abandoned farmsteads, on which the dwelling were long gone, that appeared to have not been entered for thirty years. Sometimes there were green beans and such in old glass top fruit jars, still sitting on shelves, that looked like one could still eat them. I don't know if I believe in ghosts or not. However, when I hold one of my 19th century bottles in my hand, I do feel like I'm communing with people long gone. Charlie Cook in Louisiana Bayou Country

Charles M. Cook - 2005-04-03 23:47:51

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