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| Old Mooreland Hospital - Victims where taken to several hospitals in the region of the Tornado path. Mooreland is ten miles east of Woodward. |
In the wake of natural disasters, there is much tragedy and loss. People pick themselves up, cry of the loved ones gone, the property lost, and the dreams crushed by the shaking of the earth, the roar of the flood, the power of the winds, or any of a dozen other natural disasters.
Memorials are erected to recall the lives lost and the families cut apart through misfortune. It is hard to even imagine the pain and agony of loved ones finding their families and friends in the wreckage. Worse, is the need to identify loved ones after such a catastrophe.
Yet, one of the most heartbreaking and puzzling has to be the people who remain after the disaster, after the identifications, and after the families and located their loved ones. The ‘unidentified’ that linger on and cause a person to wonder how can a person, a adult or a child, remain ‘unidentified’?
On April 9. 1947, a massive storm front came up from Texas and crossed Oklahoma before moving northward. In northwest Oklahoma, one community would never forget the date or the aftermath. Woodward would lose at least one hundred, see only their courthouse remain standing.
The mystery normally mentioned is the tragedy of Joan Croft, a 4 year old who was taken from a hospital by two men and never seen again. Equally tragic, however, was the fact that there were at least two unidentified children in the wake of the monster of wind and debris.
Today in Woodward, Oklahoma there is a memorial honoring the victims of the tornado of April 9, 1947 includes three females. Unknown the victims were aged 6 months, approx 3 years, and one 12 years.
At one point, family and school teachers from around the region came by to view the bodies to try and identify the children.
Yet, no one could identify the children. No one. In all of these decades those names have, apparently, remained unidentified.
