The Highway

We grew up beside the highway.  To be more specific, our house was on State Highway 51, two miles from Mannford and five miles from Keystone.  Highway 51 extends from the Texas state line near Arnett, Oklahoma, to the Arkansas line just east of Stilwell.  It had been Highway 33 many years ago, then 33 was moved south and this became 51.

According to my father, who was around at the time, the highway was put there in 1924 and served us well until 1962 when the new highway was built (because of the construction of Lake Keystone) and this became known as the old highway.  I've spent more time walking that stretch of pavement, first as a teenager and now as a retired person, than any other piece of real estate I can think of.  As teenagers, my brother and I used that road to get to town; as an oldtimer, I walk it for the exercise.

Let me give you a brief description of what I remember about the highway.  As it left the old town of Mannford, it went under the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroad overpass first.  It then crossed over Hazel Creek, a small stream on the east side of town.  You can still see the remnants of the bridge if you drive west up the old highway from Basin Road.  After a couple of curves, the road went up Gilman Hill.  I have no idea how Hazel Creek and Gilman Hill got their names.  If you know, I would be very interested in hearing from you.  At the top of the hill was a dirt road which turned off to the north; I don't remember whether anyone lived down there or not.  That road many years ago provided access to the Basin area.

The highway then proceeded east up and down three smaller hills to our house which was on the dirt road on the right.  From there it went on down the hill to another AT&SF railroad overpass and then down to the Salt Creek bridge.  Eventually, it ended up in Keystone.

As I mentioned earlier, my brother, Gary, and I, walked from Mannford to home many times before we got our coveted driver's licenses.  Many of these walks were late at night after we had been carousing around Mannford.  It was not uncommon then to walk the entire two miles from Mannford to our house without seeing a single car!  Compare that to the traffic on Highway 51 through our town today.

Once we were walking home late at night (probably after midnight), when we saw a car coming up Gilman Hill traveling east.  Of course we stuck our thumbs out - getting a ride home was very unusual.  As the car approached us, we saw that it was a hearse!  Of course, he pulled over up ahead of us.  This was a scary situation; did we want a ride home bad enough to get into a hearse late at night?  As it turned out, the hearse belonged to another teenager and we enjoyed the lift home.

Mae and Glen owned the Phillips 66 station on the east side of (old) Mannford.  Mom and Dad were very good friends with Mae and Glen and we spent a lot of time at each others houses.  At one point, they had a female greyhound whose name was Slim (of course).  Every once in a while, when we finished buying gas at the station, Slim would take off behind us.  When Mom or Dad saw this, they would drive slowly, about 20-25 miles per hour.  Slim would run that entire two miles to our house.  After a day or two of visiting, she would then follow us back into Mannford to the station.

Looking back on it, the highway provided us with a lot of experiences as well as a means to get to Mannford or Keystone.  I've got a lot more stories about the highway that I'll share with you some day.