A Strange Photo

Originally posted on Strangestate by Cullan Hudson...  Just what it is will be up to you to determine.  A ghost, an optical illusion, or something else? 

The Vanishing Hitchhiker Tradition

The  young man picks up a young lady walking along a lonely stretch of road and offers to take her home. The strangely silent young lady in a pale dress joins the young man in the vehicle and as they journey down the darkening road....the girl suddenly and silently disappears.

This is a version of this familar 'vanishing hitchhiker' tale made popular in the 1920's in Chicago.  Yet, this truncated version was one collected in the south shortly after the Civil War. Washington Irvings'  1824 The Lady with the Velvet Collar is considered another early literary source of the tale type. Some also see the NT story of Philip disappearing after baptising the Ethiopian as a prototype of the same story form. The more familiar form of the story came to national attention with an academic survey and a version of the story on national radio and entertainment outlets in the early 1940's.

In the 1960's and 70's, as everyone was seeking enlightenment through chemical or spiritual means, a new version of the legend cropped up around the US (and elsewhere).  The silent rider was replaced by one who spoke of dire future events, the need for immediate spiritual life changes, or who predicted some local situation.  Few, if any of these prophecies ever panned out, with perhaps the exception of one who seemed to warn about the eruption of Mt. St. Helen's....but the signs, as they say, were everywhere on that one.

Going back far enough and surveying enough cultures and their tales reveals the motif is present into ancient days. They are often buried under layers of cultural elements, political paint, and religious wrappings but they are there.

(See http://www.snopes.com/horrors/ghosts/vanish.asp; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanishing_hitchhiker;http://www.prairieghosts.com/hwy365.html )

The Woman in White Motif

It is only a matter of weeks until it is Halloween. Here is a discussion to begin to set the mood for that fun autumn holiday.  It is a time for horror marathons, trick or treat events, and dress up.  It is also a time for storyelling (folk, historic, or urban tales).

Some tales are merely that - tales.  They have no true paranormal aspect to them, other than the ability to live forever as each new generation comes of age and the tale is retold.  One of the most prevalent themes in all of paranormal research and literature is the 'lady in white', 'the woman in white', and other similar descriptors.

Wilkie Collins in 1859 published what is considered to the the first mystery novel, The Woman in White.  It ranks as an  important book for that reason, along with the 1764 The Castle of Otranto, considered by many as the first Gothic horror novel.  Both are quick reads and full of the language and values of their respective time periods. They set the stage for decades of  high literary and popular strangeness.  

He no doubt drew inspiration from tales through out the British Isles of such women dating from medieval times.  The Irish Banshee may be a version that dates further back and reflect an older tradition still.  Other tales and legend of sightings of ghosts can easily fall into the category of this classic woman in white tale and include often a women wronged or harmed who restlessly wanders around in perpetual grief or remorse

Hispanic cultures may reflect the motif in their weeping mother or similar tales associated with the violation of innocence.  The La Llorna story pool with its versions of the woman who kills her children to join  a younger lover (harlot motif) and the mother whose children are robbed from her (the saint) may reflect the dichotomy of woman in a patriarchal society.  Although she is sometimes seen and reported as more sound than body, some legends suggest a pale waxen creature mourning and searching.

The famed "resurrection Mary' version from Chicago, and its many locale variants, may be inspired by ancient tales, Collins ,or be a manifestation of some ofter process at work in society.  The resurrection Mary story emerged at a time when young ladies were first gaining freedom to go out without chaperons and in wild automobiles to dance to hot music and drink cold liqueur.  There may be a tinge of a morality tale created to keep them 'down on the farm'.  She is often reported in a white dress, although some versions in Chicago and elsewhere will have the girl in a blue or red dress.  These, however, appear as mere attempts to separate their particular and regional version from the older Chicago story.

One local version of this woman in white motif in Oklahoma is set near Conners College, near Warner, Oklahoma.    There is supposedly (I have not verified any of this in the tradition of sharing a good story....) a College road that runs past the institution and passes a cemetery.  There, a 'white woman' has been seen by generations of people....

The informant told me the story "has been told for many years."

Marilyn A. Hudson, Historian and Storyteller....

Overholser Mansion Mystery

In 2011 after a special program of haunted stories at the Overholser Mansion in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, with storyteller Marilyn A. Hudson, some guests lingered visiting.  At the bottom of this staircase a visitor snapped a photo to catch the stained glass window and sweep of the stairs.  To her surprise the pillar of light and the faint swish of pale movement was caught. She snapped another photo right after and it was not there.  

She shared the image with me and I have been unable to explain it. I was there, I saw it happen and do not think the woman attempted to hoax in any manner whatsoever (she shared the image with me even!).   This is a staircase and a house with many experiences that suggest the family that had so loved this house may have lingered on.

JS2011/Mystorical 2013

ELIZABETH, EFFIE, AND WHO ELSE?: Hunting Down A Multi-State Legend

In Oklahoma City she is known as 'Effie'.   A poor woman who loved not wise but too well and found herself pregnant with a married man's child.  She a) either killed herself , b) was imprisoned by the married man, or c) was murdered.   She has been said to haunt the Skirvin Hotel in downtown Oklahoma City since the 1920's.

In Goldfield, Nevada there is the story of "Elizabeth" associated with the historic Goldfield Hotel, who was a poor woman who loved not wise but too well and found herself pregnant with a married man's child.  She a) either killed herself , b) was imprisoned by the married man, or c) was murdered. 

It should be remembered that in Oklahoma City when it was opened as the result of the Land run of 1889, there were 'working girls' on the next train into town.  "Big Annie" Wynn Bailey was a strapping girl in her mid-twenties fresh from the lucrative mining towns of Colorado. She saw opportunity and bought land, opened businesses in the heart of "Hell's Half Acre".  Soon she controlled much of downtown Oklahoma City through real estate and a system of well placed bribes.  

These "girls" as the prostitutes were sometimes called were a social subgroup with their own status, traditions, and behaviors.   Did they also share a common 'folklore' of cautionary or fear tales to warn each other, and potential customers?

So who came first, "Emma" or "Elizabeth," or perhaps some yet to be discovered woman?  It would be interesting to see how many of these tales of 'fallen' women with names beginning with an "E" might exist, identify when they first emerged, and discover if there movement could be tracked.

Other famous 'soiled doves' include Jerome, AZ's 'Julia' and 'Maggie' in Cripple Creek, CO.  Over all the motif is similar to the cautionary tale of the 'Cry Baby Bridge', which I feel is a transference of the  old Irish song, "Mary of the Moors."

NOTE: Anyone with knowledge of a story about a 'fallen women', 'scorned woman,' or 'compromised maiden' associated with a  hotel or other town site, please contact me for an upcoming work.

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]

Fort Washita

FORT WASHITA, OKLAHOMA
Long recognized as one of the historic gems of the state, the location also has a long history of paranormal stories. As early as March of 1907 a local newspaper recounted people traveling there to view the semi-annual appearance of ghost said to appear the last day of March and the last day of October of each year. On these ocassasions witnesses have claimed seeing a young woman who, when she sees she is watched, will beckon the observer to follow and then disappears as she floats over a spring stream running near the fort. At the same time will be reports of the sounds of horses hoofs as cavalry troops are taking a ghostly ride. The romantic underpinning of the tale involves a young lieutenant from an eastern post sent to the garrison at Fort Washita. Although, to be married in a week, his orders sent him to the frontier and the wedding was postponed. The young man soon became ill and died and the bride-to-be died of grief soon after. The appearances are thought to have been linked to the death of first the young man and then the bride to be. ["Party Will Await Beck of "Ghost"" Romantic Story's Foundation To Be Investigated by the Curious". The Oklahoman (March 17, 1907): 15.]. For more informatio and events go to Ft Washita