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Thats a great question.
Everybody thats involved with 'On the Fringe' is from Leflore county, in extreme Eastern Oklahoma.
Im going to detail for you what we call "The Void", because I think that it will do two things:
#1- Help you to understand why it is that we do what we do and why we're so interested in the unknown and inexplicable.
#2- I think you will enjoy it. You have no clue what we live with around here.
Our county is very, VERY weird.
It was at one point the #1 Methanphetamine producing county in the #1 Meth producing state in the nation. I have a least TWO reliable sources whom live in Bakersfield, CA who SWEAR to me they've seen T-shirts out there that say "Thank God for Leflore County".
People disappear without a trace fairly frequently. Like once every year and a half or so.
One mans car was found on Cavanal Mountain, along with his phone and wallet and everything else...but not him.
This was all over the news several years back...and strangely enough, I just tried to find a link to put in here for you to be able to verify it...but I cant find one. That ACTUALLY strikes me as very strange.
More recently, a man who was employed in Poteau, at the SAME place my mother and several of our friends worked, made a homemade ghilly suit(like snipers wear), took his .22 rifle down in the mountains in the southern part of the county, stalked a couple he DIDNT know at their remote campsite for THREE days, and then shot and killed the elderly couple from Texas and took their minivan.
http://www.publiustx.net/item/91
Drugs are a rampant problem. You find this in many economically depressed areas. Its not that its EASY money...Its that its the ONLY industry where you can get a job.
Im sure this has to do with a great many of the disappearances.
The Early French explorers made their way through here in the 1700's.
Early French explorers are just creepy.
They left behind many French names: Poteau(town/river) Choteau(town) Sallisaw(town) San Bois(mountain range) and among many others, my PERSONAL favorite: Fourche Maline(river). This is a fork of the Poteau River, and literally translates "Wicked Fork".
How creepy/cool is that?
It is believed by some that the Vikings made it here before Columbus ever set foot in the Americas in 1492. Heavener, MY hometown boasts the "Heavener Runestone". Found by Indian trapping parties in the 1860's, it has been a hotbed of controversy for the last 100 years. Problem is that its in two different Norse Dialects, used more than 300 years apart. Is it forgery? Or Reality? A great many other Runestones have been found in the county, a few on display, most destroyed by early "treasure hunters".
Vikings are also creepy.
It gets more eerie from here on out.
It is well known around these parts, that "Devil Worship" has long been rampant and quite the problem. Many old timers tell about the police having to crack down in the 1960's and 70's on men in black hoods and robes in the local cemeterys after dark.
They say thats why our local cemeterys are "Haunted". When they were forced out of the cemeterys, they summoned "Demons" to protect their ceremonial grounds. Now thats just the folklore of it...but, I believe in THE higher power, as well as his nemesis...so I think it COULD be possible.
They have a few very specific areas where they are known to do this stuff. On top of Cavanal Mountain, in the cemeterys far back in the woods, and in Kitchen Canyon, just off the backside of Poteau Mountain, where the Heavener Runstone is located.
Interestingly enough, these are all sites where "Runestones" have been found.
I dont know much about the "mystical" meaning of Runes, but I'm researching it. And I do know there are a lot of folks who think they mean quite lot.
Hmmm...
Moving on.
Our county has has at least 18 Bigfoot sightings. This is by a LONG shot, the most of any county in our state. We have a saying around here(remember the drug thing from above): "Bigfoot: Myth? or Meth?"
I have a friend who swears on his life to me that he saw an albino deer near the Black Fork once.
Poteau Mountain, where the Runestone is located, has been known to produce 7-8 foot long rattlesnakes. I have seen them myself.
We have Mountain Lions. The state wouldnt admit it until the first of this year, but we've had them for years. I saw one while I was hunting on Cavanal 10 years ago.
One of my friend's killed a Black Panther. Science will not admit to their existence, but I have seen ones hide. The old timers around here get angry when asked about the Black Panthers...they all KNOW they exist. They claim they were a fact of life back in the 40's and 50's.
Gosh, what else.
Heres one of the biggies:
Its just the overall feel of the area. In the past few years I(as well as the rest of the OTF guys)have had the good fortune to travel through a lot of states. We spend a LOT of time in other parts of the country. One of the things we've all noticed: its different everywhere else we've been. Its like when you roll back into Leflore County, you can just feel the heavy oppression kind of drape over you like a blanket. When you leave, you can feel it lift.
I swear Im not crazy. Two of OTF's close friends drive over the road. Theyve been all over the US a hundred-fold. They both say the same thing. It was one of THEM who gave it the nickname.
We got started ghost hunting much like anyone else...going to the cemeterys. Cemetery's around here are full of Choctaw Indians. We have spirit houses in some of the cemetery's. I believe we've all learned our lesson about spending time in our local cemtery's...Its not always a good idea.
I think everyone around here knows something's not right. I think thats why we all have such an interest in the dark side of things...because we GREW UP in the darkside of things.
We've spent many a night sitting around talking about the things we've seen here, the things we've heard. Just trying to figure out what the hecks going on.
My PERSONAL feelings are somewhere along the lines of this long running Devil Worship talk. Keith thinks it could be lay lines. Its all conjectural. But I wanted to put this forth so you could all kind of understand where we come from...
...so maybe you'll have a better idea of whats WRONG with us. >:D
I will update this as I remember more stuff.
-UPDATE-
Our friend Kale from Poteau emailed me a story that I want to add here under the void. Its not a ghost story, but a great little piece of history about our county that could POSSIBLY be ghost story no one knows about yet.
Kale-Poteau, OK
I didn't see this on your website, so I thought you might could use it. This happened on Cavanal around where Nickels Lake is, in an area that was called Witteville and was a seperate town from Poteau.
The story as it ran in the Fort Wayne, IN Sentinel, on Jan. 25th 1906
Witteville, OK Mine Explosion In Indian Territory, Jan 1906
EXPLOSION KILLS FOURTEEN MINERS.
FIRE DAMP CAUSE OF DISASTER IN INDIAN TERRITORY.
ONLY TWO MEN OUT OF SIXTEEN WORKING IN THE SHAFT ESCAPED WITH THEIR LIV
Poteau, Indian Territory, Jan. 25.
-- Fourteen lives were lost in the explosion yesterday in slope No. 4 of the Witteville mine. The explosion was caused by fire damp. Three of the fourteen bodies have been recovered, but it is impossible to enter the mine because of the gas, to attempt a recovery of the other bodies.
The dead:
JOHN ALEXANDER
WILLIAM ALEXANDER
PETER DUNSETTO
ANGELO REEK
J. H. HARP
JAMES DUFFEY
THOMAS REEK
JOSEPH BATTLEY
F. FRANKMAN
JAMES THOMAS
ANGELO SPARIAT
FRANK REEK
JOSEPH TURK
A. H. DUNLAP
The explosion occurred in entry No. 4, where sixteen men were at work. Two of the men nearest the entrance were able to make their escape.
There are still 11 bodies in the mine.This isn't the only death in the mines, 10 or 15 years back a young boy was killed when he dropped something into a mine and was killed by some kind of gas or fumes that were in the mine. I live on Cavanal and I used to go hiking on all of the old railroad mine tracks they are all over the Hill/Mountain. Hope you can use some of this on your website.
P.S. The anniversary of the explosion is coming up on January 25th.
So a big thank you to Kale for sending in this story! Now Im going to add a couple of thoughts.
#1- I find it UNBELIEVABLE that there is no ghost stories that I'm aware of concerning this. Seriously, 11 bodies that were never laid to rest entombed in the dark, dank, living HELL that they worked everyday of their lives in... wow. Im thinking it may be worth an investigation
#2- I did know about the history of this story, from a great book called "The Proud Heritage of Leflore County" written by one Henry Peck in 1963. It slipped my mind somehow when I was writing The Void, probably because theres no ghost story involved. HOWEVER, Kale jogged my memory, and Im going to add a passage here from the book, that is quite definitely an instance of premonition invlovling this incident. It is as follows:
"...One escaped by not coming to work that fateful day. Amos Norris states that W.R. Clay, his grandfather and Bill Clay's grandfather was a person who believed in premonitions, and had a premonition that an explosion would occur in slope #6 on that date, and he heeded his grandfathers advice. W.R. Clay was a hoisting engineer and insisted that Amos not go into work that day. W.R. had had premonitions and foretold two earlier explosions in slope #3 in 1899 and again in #3 in 1900 with a total of 4 men, all shot-firemen, were killed. W.R. had once again had such a premonition, on the morning of January 24th, 1906. His advice was not heeded by his other grandson Norris, who went to work on the 25th anyway, but fortunately survived the explosion to tell the details of that fateful catastrophe"
Two notes: I paraphrased that to some degree. And, the book goes on to recount how all of the bodies were removed from the shaft. So apparently there are no bodies entombed there, however, that does not take away from the incredibly high body count of that particular day, in addition to the many other lives lost in the Witteville coal mines over the years of its operation.
If your from Leflore County and have a story for "The Void", Email ME!
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Justin
OTF
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