Beavers Bend Haunted History

18/06/2024

As a State Employee, I’m restricted in my ability to actively campaign for any candidate. I can give my opinion on who I think the best candidate would be. If you’re interested in my opinion, just reach out to me. Good luck to all of the candidates in today’s primary.

28/05/2024

Some more information regarding this Hochatown store. The land owner at the time this photo was taken was Doff Cress, he told me the original owner of the store and the native stone home he lived in was a man named Marion Thompson. Who Mr. Cress said built another “rock” home near the entrance to Beavers Bend at a later date. MT Thompson is listed in the 1940 census as being married to Irene, occupation as “Cattleman / Merchant” and the family had a maid, 22 year old Opal Rogers. Mr. Thompson was born in Arkansas in the late 1800s. When I asked Mr. Cress what kinds of merchandise Mr. Thompson sold in this store, he replied, “mostly moonshine!” Any other information about Mr. Thompson would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

11/05/2024

03/04/2024

I’m still working on researching who this person was and how they got here. This has been determined to be a property boundary marker most likely from the mid to late 1800s. The arrow points to the property boundary line (there’s an old fence that designates a boundary that still exists) the number 6 designated the township (helps us date it to the 1800s because this township changed after it became part of Indian territory and originally was a part of Miller County Arkansas). The Roman numeral X designates the location as section 10) and SEK (although it looks like an X in this photo, it’s a K) designates it’s the Southeast corner of that section (used K instead of C for corner) and the M underneath designates a term used in surveying in that time period meaning “more or less”. I have a feeling this may have been allotted land but in reaching out to the Choctaw Nation they have no records of Alonzo Johnson. I have found an Alonzo Johnson in allotment records from the Cherokee tribe. And I’ve found a Thaddeus Alonzo Johnson who was from Arkansas and is buried in Battiest North of here. I’ve enlisted the help of the Arkansas historical folks but the don’t have many records for what is called “old Miller County” for the same reasons as McCurtain County doesn’t have any older records (both court houses that held property records were destroyed by fire long ago). I want to tell this persons story and have it displayed at our museum, so if anyone has the ability and desire to help, just send me a message and maybe we can work together to solve this mystery. Thank you

21/03/2024

Wildflowers in the Spring / Beavers Bend 3/20/24

21/03/2024

Petrified wood / Beavers Bend 3/20/24

16/03/2024

Old stone stairs and bridge crossing creek built in 1936. Beavers Bend

12/03/2024

Found near a creek bed in Beavers Bend off the beaten path. Some type of fossil.

29/01/2024

Beavers Bend State Park 1/24/24

02/08/2023

In one of my previous posts I wrote about the time a loaded dump truck lost its brakes coming into the park on what was highway 21 and is now highway 259A (south entrance). The dump truck was able to negotiate the curve above the restaurant (almost) but then crashed completely through the restaurant. It overturned and, unfortunately , the driver was killed. I believe it was in the 50s. It was a story I’d heard but didn’t have many details. Someone sent me a photo recently and the adage of a picture’s worth a thousand words came to mind. Incredibly, there were people inside the restaurant, but no one inside was hurt. I had several conversations with previous operators and workers who told me of very strange things that happened after it was rebuilt and reopened. One of the stories was from a worker who had put all the chairs upside down on the tables in preparation to mop at closing. They left the dining area to get the mop and bucket and when they returned several of the chairs were turned upright and pushed back under the tables. Could this have been the spirit of the driver who lost his life?

08/07/2023

Beavers Bend State Park is seeking candidates for the position of Park Naturalist. The successful candidate will be responsible for operating and maintaining the parks nature center, assist in maintaining the parks hiking trail system, provide educational programs in relation to parks natural resources (flora and fauna), design and implement nature center exhibits, and schedule nature related activities for our park guests. This is a full time permanent position with full state employee benefits. To find out more information, send me a private message or go to the below website.

Job Posting Title Naturalist Agency 566 DEPARTMENT OF TOURISM AND RECREATION Supervisory Organization Beavers Bend State Park Job Posting End Date (Continuous if Blank) Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the day prior to the posting end date above. Estimated Appointment End Date (...

27/06/2023

Beavers Bend State Park is hiring for the position of Park Ranger. I’ve worked in many different law enforcement roles in my career and I can honestly say the most rewarding job I’ve had has been the 18 years I’ve served with the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department as a Ranger. If you’ve looking for a cushy job, keep looking, you won’t find it here. With the explosion of the tourism industry in our area, our Rangers stay extremely busy and their responsibilities run the gamut to include traffic enforcement, DUI and DUID arrests, Felony warrant arrests, stolen vehicle recoveries, criminal investigations, environmental crimes investigations, traffic accident investigations, natural disaster response, domestic violence investigations, mental health crisis intervention, search and rescue and much more. This Park’s population increases in size by literally thousands of people each weekend and it’s not uncommon to see high numbers most weekdays. If you’re a “Lazy” officer who doesn’t like hard work, keep looking elsewhere. If you want a job with variety, that’s fast paced, highly technical, and highly rewarding that has great benefits including the “Oklahoma Law Enforcement Retirement System “ (same retirement as troopers, OSBI, etc )and one that you can make a career, then I’m honestly telling you that you won’t find one any better around here. Throw in the fact that you’ll be working in one of the most beautiful outdoor places in the state of Oklahoma and it just keeps getting better. We want experienced officers, with motivation and those who truly want to make a difference in their community. To be realistic and transparent, if you don’t already live here, the opportunity for affordable housing is NOT good. The property values in and around the northern part of McCurtain County are ridiculous. And because of so many employment opportunities in the area, rental housing has become non-existent. If you have any questions, shoot me a private message. If you want to comment about how the salary isn’t enough, please don’t. The salary is not terrible but if your only reason to be in law enforcement is to make a large salary, then look elsewhere. This is a great law enforcement job, if it wasn’t, I wouldn’t be nearing retirement from it.

https://okgov.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/okgovjobs/job/McCurtain-County/Park-Ranger_JR17277

22/03/2023

https://okgov.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/okgovjobs/job/McCurtain-County/Park-Ranger_JR12908

Job Posting Title Park Ranger Agency 566 DEPARTMENT OF TOURISM AND RECREATION Supervisory Organization Protective Services Job Posting End Date (Continuous if Blank) Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the day prior to the posting end date above. Estimated Appointment End Date (Con...

01/12/2022

Great value and must have gift for the history buff on your Christmas list. Thank you to everyone out there who has helped support my passion to discover the amazing history of our area and share it with others!

What better gift for your local history and Beavers Bend lovers than the books “The Haunted History of Beavers Bend “ and “ Murder on the Mountain Fork (based on the true story of Samuel Walker Coltrane). These books are now combined and available in kindle ebook, paperback and hard cover versions. It can be purchased on Amazon.com. Thank you!

30/11/2022

Hello, thank you to everyone who has supported my efforts to discover and tell the stories of our area. I have included the Amazon web address for anyone who would like to order my haunted history book. I also wanted to let everyone know that I did some re-writes, editing and decided to combine the haunted history book and Murder on the Mountain Fork into one book for a better value. I also added a hard back version for consideration. Thank you all again.
Mike

https://www.amazon.com/Haunted-History-Beavers-Murder-Hochatown-ebook/dp/B08GCYJP1J/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=3J075PC0RMK93&keywords=The+Haunted+History+of+Beavers+Bend+And+Murder+in+Hochatown%3A+Tragic+Tales+of+Old+Hochatown&qid=1669830232&sprefix=the+haunted+history+of+beavers+bend+and+murder+in+hochatown+tragic+tales+of+old+hochatown%2Caps%2C417&sr=8-1

29/11/2022

I was recently part of a team of volunteers who were working together to create a new hiking trail and one of the members jumped onto a big rock in the middle of a creek to get a photograph of a small waterfall. They had some water on their boot and when they looked down they saw letters carved into the rock. The letters weren’t visible to the naked eye but a few more splashes of water and the entire text became readable. After months of research I have been able to decipher the meaning of this hand carved stone. (In my opinion)This stone served as a boundary marker using common land deed descriptions for land owned by Alonzo Johnson. The arrow points to the boundary line. The six denotes the location as township 6, The Roman numeral X denotes Section 10, SE denotes that the stone is in the southeast corner of the property, the K is used for corner instead of C due to the carvers literacy challenges (note the backward z in alonzo and the backward j in johnson) and the M was commonly used during this suspected time period to indicate “More or Less”. I believe that this marker was created in the early 1900s just before statehood and my theory is that it may be a possible Native American land allotment. My research fizzled out when trying to find out information about Mr. Johnson so I contacted the Choctaw Nation who have graciously offered their assistance. There was a man named Thaddeus Alonzo (T.A. Johnson) who shows up in census records living in an area that is very close to this markers location and may have actually been considered part of that community at the time. I’ll post any updates in the future.

29/11/2022

I recently got to meet the great grandson of Samuel Walker Coltrane. He had been researching his family history and discover the book I wrote about his great grandfather. What an honor to meet him and I’m so glad he took the time to look me up.