Fishing in the Boundry Waters

My friend, R.B., and I were planning our next epic adventure, a fishing trip to Lake Winnebigoshish  in Minnesota, when it dawned on me that I hadn't documented our trip last year.  It was during that period when I couldn't seem to ever find time to write.  So here is the story.

In early 2017, R.B. asked me if I wanted to go on a fishing trip with him and three other guys.  They were planning to fish the boundary waters in northern Minnesota.  I said, "Sure!" so we began planning the trip.  Planning, of course, involved several meetings at restaurants for food and drink.

On the appointed day, Saturday, June 10, 2017, we left Tulsa in my motor home.  The five people going were R.B., his son, Bobby, James, Travis, and myself.  The first night we drove to Owatonna, Minnesota, a distance of about 670 miles, and stayed in the parking lot of a Cabela's store there.  Of course, we went into the store and spent a boat load of money on fishing and camping gear.  The next morning, we left early and drove on to Ely, Minnesota, another 300 miles.

When we arrived in Ely, we met the outfitter that R.B. had contacted for gear and made plans to begin our canoe trip the next morning.  We spent that night, our second night out, in the motor home.  We got up early the next morning, Monday, and found a wonderful place in Ely to eat breakfast.  After filling our bellies with biscuits and gravy, we went back to the outfitter's place where we had parked the motor home and began to unload our gear.  As is usual, we had way more "stuff" than we needed and left some of it there.

Unloading our Gear in Ely

The outfitter dropped us off at a landing on Fall Lake about six miles northeast of Ely.  We loaded our canoes and began our journey.  I hadn't been in a canoe in about 60 years so it took a little while to get comfortable!  Our canoe trip took about five hours and included two portages of a quarter mile each.  We went from Fall Lake to Newton Lake and then into Pipestone Bay.  Once on Pipestone, you could, if you so desired, canoe into Canada.

Each portage involved dragging our canoe onto shore, unloading all the gear in them, hauling it all along with the canoe to the next lake, and then reloading everything back into the canoes.  These usually took about three round trips to get all our gear moved.

Bobby and Travis in the Canoe

By the time we got to our selected campsite, it was about four o'clock and we quickly got our camp set up.  We were the only humans on the little island in the middle of this lake and that made it kind of eerie!

For the next four days, we fished for walleye, pike, and smallmouth bass.  Most of our fishing was done from the bank, right in camp, because the weather wasn't good enough to spend much time fishing from the canoes.
.

Edd With a Smallmouth

Sleeping arrangements were hammocks strung between trees.  I was absolutely amazed at how well we slept and stayed dry in them.  On two of the nights, we had thunderstorms with lots of lightening and rain and I never got a drop of water in my hammock!  In the evenings, of course, we sat around the campfire, ate Nutter Butter cookies and drank copious quantities of whiskey.  We didn't catch a lot of fish but everyone caught some and everyone had a good time.

On Friday morning, June 16, we got up, fixed our breakfast over the campfire, and loaded the canoes for the trip back to our take out spot.  The wind was howling and we were all a little apprehensive about the trip.  As the morning progressed, the winds got stronger and stronger and we sure were glad to see the landing spot in sight.

By the time we got checked in with the outfitter and took a shower (which we all needed badly), we decided to load up the motor home and drive all the way home overnight.  We left Ely about 2 p.m. and, after a stop in Joplin for breakfast, arrived home about 8:30 Saturday morning.

I've been on several trips like this and, for most of them, the day I returned, I would say I would never go back.  That was not the case with this trip - when we go home I wold have turned around and done it again that day!

Misadventures as Art

A while back Louise and I were down in the shop and I showed her my "collection of shame", parts which had been damaged due to my negligence or stupidity.  A couple of days later, she asked me if she could have some of them for a project.

I had no idea what the project was but I said "yes".  After 48 years of marriage, I know the correct answers to most of her questions.  What she did was to use these as art to decorate our bathroom!

I must say that it is a very unusual choice of items to use as art.  I must describe each of these items.

On the upper left is a 32 penny spike which I accidentally left in the yard south of our house.  Years later, our neighbor, Roy, was doing us a favor by mowing that area.  He ran over the spike, which was at least 75 yards from the house, and threw it through our glass block window in the bathroom.  It traveled across the bathroom into the water closet where it left a deep gash in the sheet rock wall and landed on a small glass table in front of the stool.  Roy felt horrible but I was the one who left it in the yard and he was mowing our grass after all.

The nut in the lower left box was what was left from a trailer hitch which I grossly under designed.  We were returning home from a fishing trip to Lake Taneycomo in Missouri when the hitch failed, letting my boat and trailer come loose and almost roll over.  Ironically, my insurance agent, who was also my fishing buddy was following me at the time and almost had a heart attack!  The nut, which was holding the hitch ball on took the brunt of the incident and was ground almost nearly in two.  It took weeks to get all the asphalt out of the boat!

The large center frame holds a bent connecting rod from our '46 Chevy cabover, known as Butt Ugly.  I drove it to work at Tulsa Winch one day and a rain storm came through.  Well, the engine sits in the open behind the cab but I had no idea that that much water could get through the air cleaner!  When I went out that evening to start the truck, it turned over about twice, fired and then locked up.  The cylinder that that rod was in was full of water and it "hydrauliced", bending the rod.  A week later and some mechanic work and it was good as new.

The item in the right box is the only one not caused by my stupidity but I found it very unusual.  My neighbor, T.J., asked me to replace the PTO seal on his old Ford 600 tractor.  When I got the old seal out, I looked at it and was amazed!  The seal had the original Ford logo on it and the wiper on the seal was made of rawhide.  Early seals used rawhide as the wiper but I had never seen one.

If you get a chance, come by and look at the museum in our bathroom.

How Far Would You Go For A Coney?

Today I was searching around in my blog and I searched for "coney".  Not a single use of this word popped up.  So I've decided to change that!

For the past three or four years, I, along with friends Larry and Hugh, have had coney outings about once a month.  Normally,we would meet at Larry's wife's place of business, BS for a while and then drive to Dean's Coney Island in Sand Springs.

Well, things have changed recently.  Hugh moved farther away, down south of OKC, and Louise and I spent the winter in the Rio Grande Valley.  So coney outings have become less frequent.  The other day, as we were preparing to come home, I decided to set up a new coney lunch but in Hugh's neighborhood, Oklahoma City.

Larry and he both agreed that this sounded like a splendid idea so we planned to do it on Friday after I got home on Thursday.  Hugh found us a place in the City so we left Mannford about 10:00 a.m. and were going to meet Hugh at 11:40.

We arrived at the designated time and discovered that we had found coney nirvana!  This place has been in business since 1924 and, in spite of having the walls covered in OU memorabilia, it had all the charm a downtown coney place should have.

The name of the place is simply "Coney Island" and it's located at 428 W. Main Street.  One of our customs during our coney runs is to take pictures of the food and this trip was no exception.

This is me wolfing down one of my coneys.  Hugh and Larry better take pictures quickly if they want to capture more than just the paper lining in my basket!

So that's the story!  Yes, we did drive about 200 miles round trip and spend about five hours just to eat a coney.  Might oughta do it again next week!

Harry Wood Nash

Harry Wood Nash, 1869-1902

(My great grandfather)

Harry Wood Nash was born in Abington, Massachusetts, a southern suburb of Boston, in 1869. He was the oldest of three children born to Edward Everett Nash and Hannah Williams Nash.

The Nash's were long time Boston area residents – both Edward's father, Nathaniel Nash Jr. and his grandfather, Nathaniel Nash Sr., were from Massachusetts. Nathaniel Nash Sr. was born about 1780 but his birth location is not known nor is his ancestry. However, the Nash surname was most commonly found in Great Britain.

Edward Nash was a carpenter by trade and his wife, Hannah, was a homemaker. In addition to Harry, they had Frederick William Nash, born in 1872, and Neva Nash, born in 1875. Both Fred and Neva were born in the Akron, Ohio area, since Edward and Hannah had moved there shortly after 1870.

Fred was a metallurgist and mining engineer and we know from passport records that he traveled to Mexico at least once to pursue his occupation. Fred married Violet Irene Preston in 1901 in Denver, and together they had two daughters, Virginia and Consuelo. Violet was born in Denver in 1877. Before 1910, Fred and Neva moved to San Diego and stayed there the rest of their lives.

Family lore has it that Fred owned a company, Bullfrog Marble and Mining Quarry, and was killed in a car “accident”. His partner in the company then stole it from Violet and her daughters and left them penniless.

Neva was an “old maid” school teacher and never married. Although she was born in Ohio, she moved back to her father's home area, Massachusetts, and taught school there for many years before retiring to St. Petersburg, Florida. At least once she traveled to Cuba on holiday.

Although Harry was born in Massachusetts, he was taken by his father and mother to Ohio when he was about two years old. Because the 1890 Census was lost, we don't know where the family was in that era. There is no evidence that Edward or Hannah ever traveled to Colorado so Harry may have struck out on his own.

As we know, Harry married Susan Pearl Miller in 1891, in the Trinidad, Colorado area. At the time, he was 22 and she was 14, four months short of her 15^th birthday. It is likely that Fred followed his older brother, Harry, to Colorado since he married Violet there in 1901.

Harry and Susan had three children, Arletta Florence born in 1893, Edward Everett (his grandfather's namesake) born in 1894, and Sedelia born in 1897. All three of these children were born in Las Animas County in the Trinidad area.

In June, 1898, when their youngest child Sedelia was about 8 months old, Susan deserted Harry and moved to Pitkin County in the Aspen area. The whereabouts of the three children during this period are unknown. In July, 1899, Harry was awarded a divorce from Susan on the grounds of desertion. No mention of the three children was made in the divorce papers; it is assumed that they had been abandoned.

In July, 1900, Susan married Richard Leace Young in Grand Junction, Colorado. She and Richard had another ten to fifteen children, the exact number is unknown. In her obituary, it was stated that she was the mother of eighteen children. Some time around 1924, she divorced Richard and married James Adair. They had no children together. Susan died in 1939 in Twin Falls, Idaho at the age of 62.

At the time of Harry's divorce from Susan, he had moved to the Denver area, in Arapahoe County. He died in 1902 at the age of 33 and is buried at Fairmount Cemetery in Denver. The cause of death was listed as pneumonia. At the time of death, Harry's occupation was listed as “labourer”.

Winter's End

Winter is about to yield to Spring and Louise and I are planning our return to Oklahoma.  For the past several years (we think about eleven) we have spent the winter in the Rio Grande Valley trying to escape bad weather.

As far as weather goes, this winter was not great but tolerable.  We did have a couple of days which saw low temperatures in the high 20's.  And, in the past few days, we've had a couple which exceeded 90 degrees.  The weather was not as good as last winter but much better than in Oklahoma.

I seem to do my best genealogy down here.  In early February, I wrote about a breakthrough in my work, finding the background on my great grandfather, Harry Nash.  While there is still a lot of work to do, I now know what direction to head in.

Louise and the dogs had a good winter as well.  She, like I, is getting somewhat homesick, however, and we are anxious to get back to Mannford.  We will travel to Georgetown, Texas, for a couple of days; Louise wants to go to the IKEA store there.  By the way, a bad joke I've heard is that IKEA is Swedish for particleboard.

When we leave Georgetown, we will go to Sanger, Texas, and spend the evening with our good friends Don and Lynn, then head home.

I don't know how full-time RVer's do it;  I'm ready to get home.

History of Mannford High School

I ran across this the other day and felt that it was important enough to be reproduced and put in my blog.  Unfortunately, I don't know who to give credit to for writing it in the first place or digitizing it.  At any rate, I noticed that my uncle, Albert Winans, was one of the first graduates of Mannford High, in 1926.

History of Mannford High School

In the early years of Mannford before Oklahoma ever became a state the people felt the need of a school for the children so in 1902 posts were set on the site of the present Methodist Church. A box building was constructed of 1 x 12’s around these posts and covered with a shingle roof. The floor was dirt and pine was nailed together to make the seats. This building remained in existence for two years. The first summer Miss Ella Williams (Mrs. Devasior) was the teacher. Some of her first pupils were Johnny Finley, Bill Lust, and Dot Wheeler.

In 1904 a two-story brick building was built on the present site of Mannford School. This building contained four rooms, and in 1905, when the roll-call was counted, it showed that forty students were attending the new school. Some of the students who attended were the Mitchell children, the Coonrod girls and Raymond Holmes.

In 1920 consolidation was begun and the first two districts that were taken in were the East and West Basin and the Cross-L district. The third district to be taken in was the Evans district.  Consolidation was eventually finished in 1921.

In 1921 the early building was torn down and another brick building was built and High School curriculum was added in 1925. R. E. Holmes was one of the board members at this time. The school had only two buses at this time. They were wooden bodies built on new chassis in Oilton. Two more were added later on.

In 1926 there were four senior graduates. They were Kathleen Lovett, Lucina Ruhl, Leroy Winans, and Albert Winans.

B. F. Ellis was the superintendent in 1927. There were six graduates that year. This includes Raymond West, Bennie Bellis, Ola Ogden, Creta Sims, Glen Tate and Omer Sanders.

In 1928 with Miss Moore as their sponsor the following graduated from Mannford High school. Furl Tate, Iva Gill, Lucy Beaver, Florence Nantx, Emma Sims and Glen Lemaster.

The senior graduates of 1929 were Blanch Stanley, Guy Hinton, Evelyn Roop, Emory DeLancy, Bernese Lemasters, Ethel Todd, and G. W. Hasking. Their sponsor was James Weaver.

In 1930 the graduates were Helen Zickefoose, Myrtle Kay, Naomi Henderson, Winifred Tate, Ruby Ogden, Martha Albertton, Enid Coughran, Jewel Giles, Jessie Reed, Davis Clegg, Edwin Johnson, Arthur Wilson, and Lela Wilson with James Hunter as sponsor.

Allene Todd, Everett Hooper, Aranelle Peacock, Albert Merill, Christine Hinton, Delbert Roop, Donald Smelzer, Dorothy Maloney, Lilis McDaniel, Mary Clegg, Omah Reed, Mary Kay, Bill Hinton, Marie Vowell, and John Davee made up the graduating class of 1931. J. A. Weaver was sponsor of the class.

The 1932 graduating seniors were Ethlyn Boyington, Earl Bellis, Julia Wilson, Doss Haskins, Pauline Windosor, Jack Hawkins, Pearl Runyon, Glen Lund, Henry Lund, Fannie Ingalls, Hubert Peacock, Jess F. Reed, Linnie Mac Canada, Thomas A. Wien, Irene Roop and Kenneth Witt. James Weaver was senior sponsor.

The graduating seniors of 1933 were Odas Stockton, Ida Loveall, Howard Evans, Lilis Mitchell, Lawrence Coulson, Allie Coleman, Wilda Runyon, Doris Wilson, Jessie Frost, Herbert Holmes, Ercell Beaver, Mildred Sneed, Leona Elder, Tom Thurmond, Ethel Copline, John Shelly and Thelma Harmon.

Graduating seniors of 1934 were Raymond Zickefoose, Clyde Weaver, Vera Cold, Bertha Ingalls, George Wilson, Wilma Schram, Clayton Greenwood, Edith Crosson, Hudson Zickefoose, Lenora Weaver, Virginia Daniel, Evelyn Harden, and Forrest Hooper.

In 1935 the following graduated from Mannford High: Velma Melton, Maryin Reed, Jasper Loveall, Kathleen Boyington, Ladora Crane, Tommy Ashlock, Clyde Pursell, Mary Ogden, Claude Zumwalt. L. F. Robinson was the superintendent and senior sponsor that year.

In 1936 diplomas were given to Joyce Sissom, Claude Aldridge, Dorthy Greenwood, Mary Katherine Baker, Cecil Brooks, Reba Chapman, Wilma Beaver, Talmadge Greenwood, Nadene Hopps, Jewel Barton, Vernon Butler and Deloris Crupper.

In 1937 and 1938 the new wing or what is now the grade school was added. The superintendent at this time was Mr. Joe B. House. The graduates were as follows: 1937; Mary Morgan, Roy Frost, Paul Hinton, Neoma Brady, Josephine Young, Evelyn Caterhaut, Ellen Box, Jack Greenup, Frankie Johnson, Arlie Dunegan, Carleen Trower, Mary Runyon, Joe Aldridge, Ralph Reynolds, Preppa Ingalls, Genevieve Rainbolt, Lorene Zickefoose and Ira Reed. 1938; Alva Witt, Glossie Lee Smith, Dorothy Krotizer, Mary Ella Belt, Verna Mae Gilreath, Forrest Adsit, Wavel Box, Mildred Ihrig, Geneva Crain, Jannie Boyd, Roy Ringer, Kathleen Zickefoose, Chester Canode, Bertha Sue Boyd, and Dean Harness.

In 1939 Haxle Barton, Phil Hinton, Phyllis Hooper, Keith Martin, Lena Mitchell, Margie Stroup, Orvel Means, Thelma Hooper, Edward Lawmaster, Helen Witt, Ray Brooks, Evelyn Zickefoose, Fern Sissom, Beulah Bellis, and Billie Ihrig received diplomas,

1940 saw the following students graduate from Mannford High School: Eugenia Clegg, Owen Housley, Raymond Tate, Dan Vaught, Bertha Larremore, Eugene Crane, Gene Hasking, Margaret Larremore, Neoma Burlison, Warren Means, Marcella Ihrig, Leon Brooks, Ruth Rashendorfer, Elwyn Thurston, Lucille Johnson, Raymond Brady and Warren Green.

In 1941 these students graduated from M. H. S. They are Dixie MacDonald, Oliver Zickefoose, Bonnie Jo Cunningham, Roy Lawmaster, Oneta Ihrig, Edith Vowell, Edith Mae Larremore, Billie Weaver, Gladys Anderson, Floyd Zickefoose, Gloria Rashendorfer, Herchel Palmer, Josephine Davis, Maxine Dye, Jewell Bellis, and Billy Adsit. Mr. M. S. Van Noy was superintendent at that time.

In 1942 with Carolyn Tissingtron as their sponsor these students graduated from this high school: Denny Joe Smelser, Frank Spess, Joe van Noy, Beverly Ann Boyington, Erza Pulliam, Willa Dean Trower, and Beulah Lawmaster.

There were twelve senior graduates in 1943. Mr. J. T. Thompson was superintendent and Caroline T??sington senior sponsor. They were: LeRoy Anderson, Don Woodrell, Barbara Martin, Billy Greenwood, Clayton Krotzer, Essie Shoemaker, Naomie Thurston, Florence Means, Bobby Greenwood, Frank Dale and Willis Dale.

The senior class of 1944 consisted of Marie Lawmaster, Paul Spess, Wilma Rossman, Lois Hooper, Clois Hooper, Beth Hinton, Buna Burlison, Kenneth Applegate, Lucretia Rich, Zola Claypool, Helen Fisher, Florence Crane, and Leonard Zickefoose.

In 1945 high school diplomas were handed to Ruth Spess, Betty Wilson, Billy Joe Lamberson, Bette Anderson, Lois Mac Donald, Ermalee Dale, Nadine Melton, Buck Cramer, Sheralee Hooper, and Dick Woodrell.

In the senior class of 1946 there was Willadean Newport, Vera Lee Hammock, Peggy Flinchum, Maxine Colberg, Lila Shackleford, Willa Lee Fender, Virginia Reeves, Rheba Dickey, Russell Nance, and Beth Brashears.

The seniors of 1947 were Donald Butler, Joe Reeves, Dale Robbins, Dixie Nance, Beulah Kinion, Paul McCrackin, Ida Lou Reed, Stephen Krotzer, Maxine Hinton, Dallas Standridge, Marjorie Compton, Jessie Donald Hooper, Donna Jane Means, Leslie Davidson, Rebecca Spess, Nona Osterhout and Earl Murray Jr.  This class under the supervision of Cecil Smith, superintendent put out the first high school annual in several years.

In 1948 the following students graduated from Mannford High School: Maxine Box, Vera Harvison, Gordon Gilreath, Leroy Fitzwater, Imogene Butler, Carol Spess, Violet McCrackin, Jack McIntire, Louise Reeves, Raymond Manley, Marjorie Shackelford, Jimmy Bowen, Pamelia Chapman, Don Holmes, Clarence Green, Doris Woodrell, Ronald Smith, and Beulah Nance.

This year another group of young people will leave Mannford High to make their own way in the world. They are Bethan (Butler) Greenwood, Alma Jean (Martin) Gilreath, Lenore (Houston) Flinchum, Charlene Brady, Renee Gregg, Rita Jo Gill, Louise Barton, Ray Allen Clegg, Lester Kercheval, Don Brashears, and Kenneth Gilreath.

Mannford Consolidated High school now has an enrollment of three-hundred grade and high-school pupils. There are thirteen teachers. At present and for the past three years Mr. Cecil C. Smith is superintendent. Mr. C. G. Davis is principal. The members of the school board are B. I. Greenwood, C. S. Krotzer, and N. S. Mitchell who has served the past twenty nine years as a member of this board.

(From the 1949 Mannford High School Yearbook, photo added by Edd Alexander)

My Hometown

Although I was born in Rock Springs, Wyoming, and lived in Cromwell, Oklahoma for the first three or four years of my life, I consider Mannford, Oklahoma to be my hometown.  My mother was from Cromwell and just happened to be in Rock Springs when I was born.  My adoptive father was from the Mannford area and that's how we came to live there.

Mannford was a settlement on the banks of the Cimarron River and, prior to about 1904, didn't even have a name.  It was platted in 1904 and became a "for real" town before Oklahoma became a state in 1907.  Mannford was named after a gentleman who lived in the area and helped found the town.  His land included a low-water crossing on the river which became known as Mann's Ford, later shortened to Mannford.

For several years, Mannford was a growing area because of the railroad which ran through there, the farming and the cattle which were fed out in the area.  Eventually, the town reached a state of equilibrium and the population leveled out at about 500 people.  In 1951 when I was five years old, my father, with his new wife and two adopted sons, returned to Mannford.  Growing up in a small town was the best thing that could have happened to me.  Most of my memories of childhood are pleasant ones.

In the mid to late 1950's, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that a flood control reservoir would be built somewhere around the confluence of the Arkansas and Cimarron Rivers.  The lake was to be an integral part of the Arkansas River Navigation System which was then being constructed.  The system was conceived to allow navigation from Tulsa to the Mississippi River.

I remember that Life Magazine called the system the "biggest pork barrel project in the history of the United States".  Senators Mike McClellan of Arkansas and Robert S. Kerr of Oklahoma each had a tremendous influence in Washington, D.C. and were able to get the spending, about $4.3 billion at the time, approved.

At any rate, the construction of the flood control reservoir, to be called Keystone Lake after the nearest town to the dam location, began.  Several towns were to be affected, Cleveland, Osage, Prue, Keystone, and Mannford.  Cleveland and Osage were right on the edge of the flood control pool so elected to protect their towns with levies.  The town of Prue was more impacted and moved a short distance to escape the lake.  Keystone was not so fortunate; it would be about 50 feet under water so a serious move would be required.  Unfortunately, no leaders stepped up to lead this effort, and as a result, Keystone died except for memories.

My hometown, Mannford, was going to be mostly under water at flood stages and the Corps of Engineers gave them the option to either build levies to protect the town or to move it completely.  Several of Mannford's leaders took this as an opportunity to take the town into a new position and elected to move the town.  The location chosen was two miles east and two miles south of the old town, about 2.8 miles.  This would insure that they were on the relocated State Highway 51 as well as having the railroad run through it.  Incidentally, our family didn't have to move; we had been two miles east of Mannford and now we would live two miles north of the newly-located town.

In 1957, my family moved to Pampa, Texas, and we were there until 1960 when we returned to Mannford.  Some construction on the reservoir and ancillary projects began while we were in Pampa but the majority of the work began about the time we returned to Mannford.  Many things had to happen before the lake could be impounded including construction of new highways, railroad tracks, parks and moving many houses, businesses and even cemeteries.

By August, 1962, the new school had been completed and I started my junior year there.  Jobs for young people abounded and I did my share of construction work on park roads in the area.  We got to see a huge project being built right in our backyards and it was an exciting time!

Mannford has survived several natural disasters since it's move, including a tornado in April, 1984, which destroyed the High School, several churches, and many homes.  A wildfire in 2012 burned 60,000 acres and about 400 homes in the area but didn't get into the town proper.

Today the "new" town of Mannford has matured into a thriving community with a lot of amenities and I believe that it's proximity to Tulsa will make it a high growth area for the next 50 years.  The population has grown from about 2000 people in the 2000 Census to about 3000 in the 2010 Census.