STRANGE GEOGRAPHY

Oklahoma, like many places, has some unique, colorful, and downright mystifying place names. The following are geographic features by county with the bizarre words (or variants such as possessives) of “Devil”, “Dead”, "Skull", "Skeleton" and “Ghost” in the names:

"Devil" is found in the names of hill, ridges, canyons, hollows, and peaks in Caddo, Pushmahata, Ottawa, Latimer, Mukgogee, and Haskill Counties. Names include: Devil's Backbone, Devil's Canyon, Devil's Hollow, Devil's Peak and Seven Devil's Peak.

"Dead" is found in the names of gaps, hollow's mountains, crossings, springs, lakes, and rocks in Osage, Sequoyah, Tillman, LeFlore, Pontotoc, and Johnston Co. Names include: Deadman Gap, Deadman's hollow, Dead Woman Crossing, Deadman Springs, Deadman Rock and Deadman Mountain.


"Ghost" is found in the names of mounds and hollows in Payne, Caddo, and Creek Co. Names include: Ghost Mounds and Ghost Hollow.

In addition waterways appear with names containing the words "skeleton" and "skull": Skeleton Creek in Garfield and Logan Co. (it appears to dump into the Cimarron River. The Skull Creek travels through Payne and Creek Co. It is thought to date to the time of cattle drives and cattle who died on despite getting to the water.).

In the area of Binger, Weatherford and Hinton is the heart of Oklahoma's geologic mound country (as opposed to native constructions by prehistoric people as found in eastern Oklahoma and other places in Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, etc.See Spiro Mounds).

One such feature is Caddo County "DEAD WOMAN MOUND", so named because a farmer found a woman there dead and buried here at or near the mound. It was known to be called that as early as 1900 (but probably predates by 20-30 years )and has no connection with the "Dead Woman Crossing" or the disappearance and murder of Mrs. Katie James in 1905.

Famous writer H.P. Lovecraft co-wrote a story with an Oklahoma woman Zela Biship called the “The Mound” which was inspired by these elevations.
You can see a charming photo from 1952 of a small child on the Dead Woman Mound
and yet another great photo of the mound is here. When this name was given would be significant as to who used it and who the dead woman was.

"GHOST MOUND" is near Fivemile Creek in Caddo County, Ok and is a desolate, lonely looking elevation and many claim this is the genesis of its name. Others, however hark to a local legend that claims strange lights, a headless body, mysterious Native American ceremonies, and other queer activity around the site. This was indeed the story the Oklahoma woman sent to author Lovecraft about the location. Unfortunately, not enough has been done to record the labels given to various geographic locations for the preservation of their folklore or legendary history. When the name emerged and who used it would be very informative and provide much insight.

[Image note; the author in a one really strange geographic place]