HGB Podcast, Ep. 104 - Andersonville Prison

 

Moment in Oddity - Cliff Burials of the Igorot People
Suggested by: Laurette Vinson

Photo by: Laurette Vinson

The Igorot People live in six different provinces in the Philipine Islands and form twenty separate tribal groups, each with their own language, rituals and beliefs. The term Igorot means "People of the Mountains."The Igorot People of the mountain province in the north near Sagada practice a unique burial tradition. This tradition is a way of honoring their tribal elders and spans 2000 years. They are buried in wooden coffins that are then hung from cliffs. The elderly person carves their own wooden coffin and if they are unable to complete this task, a family member helps them. Once they die, they are wrapped in blankets that are tied with rattan ropes and carried through the village in a procession usually atop a wooden chair. Mourners line the path and attempt to touch the body because many of them believe that if they get the blood of the deceased on them, that it will pass on the talents of the deceased to them. The body is positioned in the fetal position before being placed in the coffin, so that they leave the world in the same way that they came into the world. The coffin is then nailed or tied to the side of the cliff. Theories as to why the Igorot practice this form of burial range from the idea that it places the person's spirit closer to heaven to protecting the body from scavenging animals that could unbury bodies placed in the ground to protecting the deceased from headhunters. The last burial at the location that Laurette shared was in 1984. The location of these cemeteries along cliffs, certainly is odd!

Photo by: Laurette Vinson

Photo by: Laurette Vinson

Photo by: Laurette Vinson

Photo by: Laurette Vinson

Also found a wonderful article with pictures by Jacob Maentz ,which you can find here: http://www.jacobimages.com/2013/05/igorots-cordilleras

This Day in History - The Visions of Bernadette Soubirous
by: Jessica Bell

On February 11th, in 1858, Bernadette Soubirous saw the first of her 18 "visions" in Lourdes, France. As a young 14-year old girl, Bernadette Soubirous had 18 visions of the Blessed Lady in a grotto in the outskirts of Lourdes from February 11 to July 16, 1858. During a mission to collect firewood, Bernadette stumbled across a grotto that at the time was filled with rubbish washed up from the river. She told her companions that she saw a Lady dressed in white, wearing a white dress, a blue girdle and a yellow rose on each foot, the same color as the chain of her rosary and the beads of the rosary were white. During the ninth apparition, a spring is reported to have miraculously appeared when Bernadette scraped the ground at the instructions of the Blessed Lady.  Though many townspeople believed she had indeed been seeing the Holy Virgin, Bernadette's story created a division in her town. Many believed she was telling the truth, while others believed she had a mental illness and demanded she be put in a mental asylum. Some believed Bernadette's visions meant she needed to pray for penance. Bernadette asked the local priest to build a chapel at the site of her visions and the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes is now one of the major Catholic pilgrimage sites in the world.  A few years after her reported visions, Bernadette became a nun and took the name Sister Marie Bernarde. She was later canonized by the Catholic Church. 

Andersonville Prison (Research Assistants Jessie Harms and Ann Student, suggested by listener John Beaverhausen)

During February 1864, Camp Sumter was opened in Macon County, Georgia. Camp Sumter came to be known as Andersonville, and that is what it is still referred to as of today. Of all the prisons we have featured on the podcast, Andersonville Prison seems to be the worst thus far. This prison was opened to house Union prisoners during the Civil War and to say that it was overcrowded would be an understatement. The amount of prisoners who lost their lives at this prison reaches into the several thousands. And the prison was not open for very long. These kinds of conditions and numbers of death usually lead to paranormal activity and there seems to be quite a bit of it going on here. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of Andersonville Prison.

From the beginning of the Civil War until 1862, prisoners were exchanged on the battlefield– a private for a private, a sergeant for a sergeant, and a captain for a captain. Problems arose with this system in 1862, resulting in the creation of large holding pens for prisoners on both sides. Union Army Major General John A. Dix and Confederate Major General Daniel H. Hill met on July 18, 1862 and drafted a cartel providing for the parole and exchange of prisoners. The draft was submitted to and approved by their superiors. The Dix-Hill Cartel, as it became known, was signed and ratified four days later. The cartel failed before the end of the year for various reasons, including the Confederate Government’s refusal to exchange or parole black prisoners. They threatened to treat black prisoners like slaves and execute their white officers. Prisoners were returned to the battlefield too soon, creating another problem. Confederate prisoners from Vicksburg’s surrender on July 4, were paroled and back on the battlefield within weeks.

On October 23, 1862, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton directed that all commanders of prison camps be informed that exchanges of prisoners would cease, greatly affecting the large number of prisoners held in northern and southern prison camps. Northern prisoner-of-war camps were: Camp Douglas in Chicago and Johnson’s Island, and Camp Chase in Ohio. Southern prisoner-of war camps were: Libby Prison and Belle Isle in Richmond, and Camp Florence in South Carolina. The two prisons in Richmond were overcrowded by mid-1863. The overcrowding and severe food shortages caused Confederate officials to look for a suitable location far south of Richmond. They selected Captain W. Sidney Winder to find a suitable location in Southwest Georgia. In Milledgeville, Georgia’s capital, Governor Joseph E. Brown introduced him to legislators from southwestern counties in Georgia. Winder traveled to Albany, but property owners discouraged him, he then traveled to Americus, where Uriah Harrold, a Commissary Department purchasing agent, told him about Andersonville, which he claimed had a large supply of good, clear water. Andersonville was five miles west of the Flint River and 1,600 feet east of the Southwestern Railroad’s Andersonville Depot in Sumter County, now part of Macon County. Winder evaluated the area and selected it in mid-December 1863. Construction of the prison was the responsibility of the Quartermaster Department, who chose Richard B. Winder of Maryland to oversee the project.

In January 1864, slaves started digging a ditch and felling trees to construct the prison, that would house 10,000 prisoners. Pine trees were cut 22 feet in length, with five feet set in the ground and seventeen feet above ground. Broad axes were used to make all sides were flat so prisoners could not see outside of the prison. The stockade had two gates, one on the South and one on the North, and 80 sentry boxes at 40 yard intervals. The prison’s interior had a deadline about 19 feet from the stockade wall. Guards were given orders to shoot prisoners who crossed the deadline. The prison was completed in the third week of March.

The first 500 prisoners arrived at Andersonville Prison Camp, also referred to as Camp Sumter, February 25 and put into the unfinished stockade, which had a shortage of equipment and food. Before authorities could get the prison put in order, they were swamped by the unceasing arrival of prisoners, which numbered about 400 every day. There was short supply of food and containers to hold rations, such as plates and cups. Prisoners resorted to using hats or sleeves torn from clothing and tied with string to hold their rations. During March, rations consisted of cornmeal, beans, and occasionally meat. As prisoners continued arriving, food rations diminished.

Prisoners were divided into detachments of 270 men and then subdivided into three companies of 90 men each with a sergeant in charge. The sergeants received the rations and divided them as equally as possible amongst the men. By the end of March, there was only cornmeal and a little salt.

On March 27, 1864, Captain Henry Wirz was placed in charge of the prison. Wirz, who was born in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1823, received some medical training, before his father insisted he enter the mercantile field. Wirz came to America in 1849. He joined the 4^th Louisiana Infantry at the beginning of the Civil War and was wounded in the battle of Seven Pines.

By April 1, 1864, the stockade, designed to hold 10,000 prisoners, held 7,160. By May 8, 5,787 more prisoners arrived, 728 prisoners died, 13 escaped, and 7 were recaptured, for a total of 12,213 prisoners in the stockade. Richard Winder made the terrible mistake in locating the prison’s bakery and cookhouse upstream from the prison, which polluted the stream used by the prisoners for drinking and bathing.

Death was caused by contagious diseases, polluted drinking water inside the stockade, inadequate hospital accommodations, lack of prisoner’s quarters, exposure to the elements, bad sanitary practices, short and defective rations, and overcrowding. In order to protect themselves from the elements, prisoners constructed what they called “shebangs.” The huts and lean-tos from logs, limbs shrubs, and brush left in the stockade, as well as blankets, tent flies, overcoats, and clothing from the dead. The Confederates and prisoners made no effort to properly design or lay out streets in the stockade’s interior, so the shebangs went in all directions. The disorganization and lack of proper camp administration probably caused a higher death rate. Prisoner’s letters, diaries, and manuscripts all contained the same subjects: the loneliness, dejection, hopelessness, helplessness, and complete despair.

Lumber and tools ordered to erect barracks and other facilities for the prisoners, was used for buildings outside the prison. Not receiving the lumber not only prevented shelters from being erected it also affected sanitation in the prison. Captain Wirz came up with a good idea to solve the sewage and toilet problem. He planned to build two dams across the stream running through the stockade and flush out the bottom end of the stream daily by opening the dams. If lumber and tools had been available, his idea could have worked. Two squads of 25 prisoners each were supplied with shovels every day and charged with removing all offal from the prison. The combustible part was burned and the rest thrown into the stream.

In May 1864, 708 prisoners died. The prison contained 12,000 prisoners, with at least 500 arriving each day. The stream was a quagmire – one prisoner wrote, “All of the filth from the prison ran into the creek and we had to strain the water through our teeth to keep the maggots out.”

The excessive heat enhanced many types of diseases. There was little chance of escape with 1,200 guards, four pieces of artillery, and a cavalry company.

Men lacking shelter from the weather, developed sores, which in time often turned into gangrene. Disease and sores were spread through lice and thousands of flies swarmed throughout the prison. Killing lice became a game that helped pass the time. The excessive summer heat caused many types of diseases, such as typhus, smallpox, dysentery and diarrhea, to spread through the prison. That summer, more than 100 prisoners died each day. During the winter, many prisoners died from the cold. Authorities were advised to move the hospital outside the prison and supply enough tents for 1,000 patients. When a new hospital was located outside the prison stockade, it only had tents for 800 and by June 1864, there were 1,035 in the hospital and 3,000 sick inside the stockade. Many prisoners were insane, helpless, and entirely naked. One prisoner later wrote, “The sight of all the misery, the starved, dying and half-naked humans all around, those with scurvy misshaped limbs, swollen limbs, swollen joints, and festering sores infected with gangrene, all contributed to make the newcomer so unnerved that he would soon get into a mental condition of despair out of which the ghost beacon of death seemed welcome.” By the end of summer, the crowding was worse and spread of disease increased.

When a prisoner became helpless, gang members, called “Raiders,” would rob him. Over time, the Raiders boldness grew and the robbery victim was sometimes murdered. At the end of June 1864, with the help of Captain Witz, the “Raiders” were identified and removed from the prison for trial. From the opening of the prison up until they were caught, the “Raiders” had robbed, murdered, and in every way made life even more horrible for the prisoners. A trial was held at the end of June 1864. Some of the guilty Raiders were ordered to wear a ball and chain, some were strung up by their thumbs or set in stocks. Six of the leaders were found guilty of murder and were hung on July 11, 1864. A police force, called “The Regulators,” was organized within the prison and headed by “Limber Jim.”

Each day prisoners received a quarter of a loaf of bread, weighing about 6 ounces, and four or five ounces of pork. After rations were disbursed, prisoners tried to trade for something more palatable or for things they needed, such as trading salt for wood or trading wood for beans. Food was constantly on the minds of all the prisoners. They thought about it while awake and dreamt about it at night. Before the end of Summer, prisoners were being served mush for breakfast, mush for dinner, and mush with no salt for supper. As rations decreased, many days prisoners received only a pint of boiled rice with no meat, bread or meal to go with it.

Prisoners took up professions, such as bakers, bucket makers, launderer, and kettle makers to kill time, as well as make money for their needs. Most raw materials were smuggled in since the Confederate guards liked receiving Yankee greenbacks.  Prisoners were allowed to receive boxes of food from outside after being carefully inspected and they were allowed to send and receive mail subject to the post commander’s approval. If a box arrived for a prisoner, who had died, it was given to the hospital authorities for distribution.

Prisoners constantly talked of escaping and many attempts were made, such as attempts to tunnel out and running away while outside the stockade on detail. One prisoner pretended to be dead and had two friends carry him out to the dead house. After dark, he got up and ran away. Captain Wirz, suspecting the trick, had a surgeon inspect all dead bodies before releasing them for burial. By the end of summer, many tunnels had been dug and some prisoners were able to escape.Tunnels were found 14 feet deep and from 90 to 100 feet long. Prisoners hoping for a morsel of food would report escape plans to authorities, leading to the capture of men.

Prison life took on a routine, except for tricks played on guards. When a prisoner died, fellow prisoners in his detachment tried to hide the fact he was dead as long as possible, so they could receive his ration. To hide the death from the guards, the sergeant would count many live prisoners two or three times. Also, when a prisoner died, his friend would tie one end of strong piece of cord around the corpse and the other end around himself, to prevent the body from being stolen during the night. Carrying his dead friend to the dead house enabled him to pick up a piece of wood the next day for cooking his food.

On May 21, 1864, the Sumter Republican reported, “The Andersonville prisoners nearly escaped. The commander discovered the plans. At this time, there are 17,000 prisoners there and 500 are being added every day. They cannot be turned loose upon the people. 3,000 to 5,000 men are needed to keep them but there are only 500 men there. Col. Persons is aware of the problem. West Georgia is the Egypt of the Confederacy and the crops must not be destroyed.” By June 17, there were 21,539 prisoners at Andersonville. By the end of June, there were 25,000 prisoners and 7,968 men had been admitted into the hospital.

Many of the prisoners who arrived at Andersonville in April and May, had an abundance of money. The Union armies were reclothed and paid off in Spring 1864 for the spring campaigns. Many of the new recruits and reenlisted veterans had bounty money with them when captured. Prisoners concealed money on their person in many ways. Greenbacks could be pressed inside a brass button, pressed into the sole of a shoe or put into the bowls of large Dutch pipes with a little tobacco sprinkled. Some prisoners swallowed their rings. Gambling was rampant – faro, dice, and $10 stakes were commonly played for. Trade was carried on with guards outside of the wall by talking through cracks and throwing articles over the fence. Captain Wirz allowed sutlers inside the prison walls to sell items to the prisoners. Prisoners with money could buy the necessities of life, such as peas, pones, wheat, flour, and salt, which were very expensive and rapidly ate up the prisoners money. Luxury items such as tobacco, onions, eggs, soda, red pepper, gingerbread, soap, taffy, sour beer, apples, and peaches were also available to those with money. Besides money, various items like gold and silver watches and rings, pocket knives, and mugs and laurel pipe bowls carved from wood, were also exchanged for food.

On July 1, 1864, an addition to the prison was completed, adding another 10 acres to the stockade, which was now 26½ acres. There were 26,367 prisoners in the compound. As prisoners were moved into the newly completed addition, there was a stampede and many prisoners were hurt pressing through the 12-foot opening. The sick, falling down in the press, were trampled and killed; strong men became wedged between the moving mass and standing timbers. A large number of strong and weak prisoners were severely injured and never recovered and an unknown number of prisoners died. By July 21, there were 29,201 prisoners in the stockade and 1,735 in the hospital. On August 4, prisoners took a petition, circulated throughout the stockade, requesting the speedy release of all prisoners from the horrible conditions they were living in, to the proper authorities in Washington, D.C., but nothing was done.

There were many church meetings among the prisoners, with various clergy, two priests, and other Christian prisoner doing the ministering.

During July, Andersonville officials became very concerned. General William T. Sherman’s army was near Atlanta and prison officials were worried that prisoners, fueled by reports from new prisoners, would start a mass uprising. Slaves from surrounding farms were brought in to fell trees and dig additional earthworks in anticipation of a cavalry attack. General Sherman did order two cavalry units to ride south and cut the Macon railroad. He also gave General George Stoneman, who commanded on the units, to advance on Macon itself. General Stoneman planned to free Union officers at Camp Oglethorpe in Macon and then head south to free the 29,000 prisoners at Andersonville. He had 2,500 men and a two-gun battery. He left Atlanta on July 27 at 3:00 a.m. and headed south, followed by 4,000 Confederate cavalrymen. When Stoneman reached Clinton, he was attached by the Georgia militia and in a number of skirmishes his cavalry was defeated. Union soldiers were either killed or taken prisoner, resulting in 500 more prisoners in Andersonville. In August, 2,933 prisoners died, 1,305 were sick in the hospital, and 5,100 were sick in the stockade. During August, the number of prisoners in the stockade was 32,899. Prison conditions were horrendous. Prisoners were dying at a rate of 100 per day. By August 4, there were 33,000 prisoners in the stockade, including 2,208 in the hospital. Holes were dug not only for escape attempts but also to collect water and for warmth from the northern cold. Many holes caved in and suffocated prisoners. The water holes dried up from heat during July and August. So many prisoners died in August, gravediggers were kept busy and the listing of the names of the dead became a 24-hour job.

Six months after opening Andersonville, the authorities finally showed some organization by instituting the “Rules of Andersonville Prison.” In September, the framework for four barracks, housing 270 prisoners each, was completed. As the men started moving into the barracks, two more barracks neared completion. During September, 2,677 prisoners died or 23.3 percent of those confined in Andersonville. Between February, when the prison opened and September 21, 9,479 prisoners had died. Diarrhea had killed 3,530 and dysentery killed 999 for a total of 58.7 percent of the deaths during the first six months of Andersonville’s existence.

Starting in September, some of the healthier prisoners were moved in detachments from Andersonville to Campt Lawton at Millen, Georgia, and to Florence, South Carolina, to help relieve the overcrowded conditions and due to the movement of General Sherman’s army near Atlanta. By September 8, 5,000 prisoners had been moved. By the end of September, the stockade that had held over 30,000 prisoners a few weeks earlier, was nearly empty. The only prisoners remaining were those who could not walk and those who had to work on the outside of the prison to keep it operating. By October, Andersonville no longer received prisoners and only those unable to travel remained. It became a prison hospital housing a high proportion of sick prisoners. Besides the 8,218 prisoners there on October 1, another 444 were added during the month. Of those 8,662 men, 3,913 received treatment in the hospital and 1,560 of those died, 28 escaped, and 2,811 were transferred to other prisons. At the beginning of December, 2,000 prisoners arrived from Salisbury, North Carolina. On December 22, 1864, General Cooper, inspector general of the Confederacy wrote General John Winder that Savannah had been evacuated and suggested that prisoners from Columbia, Salisbury, and Florence be moved immediately to Andersonville, because there was only one road open from Branchville to Augusta. Prisoners once again started arriving daily at Andersonville. At the beginning of January, 197 prisoners died. During January, 4,000-5,000 prisoners arrived daily from other prison camps. Winter 1864-65, was the coldest winter in 25 years in southwest Georgia. One night the temperature was 18 degrees above zero. The prisoners had little clothing and wood they attempted to burn for warmth was too wet. More prisoners arrived at the end of January. February was more pleasant and the prisoners knew that if Sherman had been defeated there would have a larger influx of prisoners, but the only prisoners arriving were from other prisons. As the weather warmed, the prisoners started exercising and began singing patriotic songs. For the first time in 12 months the prisoners were optimistic. Rumors were good rumors – exchange, the end of the war, going home. In March 180 prisoners in Andersonville hospital died. From the guards, prisoners learned the Yankees captured Selma, Alabama, and would arrive soon. The few prisoners that arrived brought good news. On March 25, 800 prisoners left and there was talk that a train would leave every day full of prisoners. On March 28, new prisoners brought word that General Wilson’s Cavalry was on the way. In April the war ended. During the last full month of Andersonville’s existence 28 prisoners died. Most of the prisoners were sent to Vicksburg for exchange. Slowly the prisoners left Andersonville. When Union forces arrived at Andersonville in May, about three weeks after the war ended, only a small number of prisoners remained. Before arrangements could be made to transport the sick and frail soldiers home, one more prisoner died. During Andersonville’s 14 month existance, 12,914 prisoners died at Andersonville.

Hundreds of the prisoners that left Andersonville perished on the way home, when the Sultana, the steamboat they were on, exploded and sank near Memphis, Tennessee. Hundreds more died in northern hospitals or in hometowns from diseases they incurred while prisoners at Andersonville. The human misery reached its zenith at Andersonville and the tombstones in Andersonville National Cemetery and prisoners written words tell a tragic story.

Dorance Atwater and Clara Barton worked together after the closure of the prison to locate and identify prisoners who had died at Andersonville and inform their families. For prisoners who died at Camp Sumter, record keeping was shabby at best. There was great concern that after the war relatives would not be able to locate and identify the bodies of their loved ones. Into this situation stepped one prisoner, Dorence Atwater, of the 2nd New York Cavalry. Sent to Andersonville, Atwater was detailed as a clerk to the surgeon who recorded all the daily deaths. Secretly, Atwater compiled a duplicate list of names and regiments of the deceased, keying them to numbers that were inscribed on the hastily erected posts or boards that were placed over the graves. With the war over, Atwater eventually saw this list of 12,912 names published, thereby enabling proper identification of the graves. He received no reward for his efforts, but Dorence Atwater was a true hero of the Civil War.

After the war, Clara Barton, the “Angel of the Battlefield,” who was famous as a nurse during the war, started receiving letters from family members trying to locate loved ones who did not return home. In an effort to help the families, she started the painstaking research of trying to find the missing soldiers and respond to the family’s inquiries. Dorence Atwater contacted Barton in June 1865, requesting copies of her lists of missing soldiers. Elated, Barton contacted Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, requesting permission to accompany the U.S. Army’s expedition to identify graves at Andersonville. While at Andersonville in July and August 1865, Atwater and Barton read the letters she had received from relatives of missing soldiers and searched through the Andersonville Death Register and captured hospital records looking for the missing soldiers. Laborers placed headboards over the dead soldier’s graves in the cemetery. Barton wrote dozens of letters letting family members know their loved ones had died at Andersonville. When the expedition was finished, Barton was given the honor of raising an American flag, for the first time, over the newly established Andersonville National Cemetery.

After leaving Andersonville in 1865, Barton set up the Missing Soldier’s Office in Washington, D.C. She hired numerous clerks, including Dorence Atwater, to answer the more than 60,000 letters she received. By 1867, when the Missing Soldiers Office closed, Barton and her staff had identified more than 20,000 missing soldiers, including the prisoners who died at Andersonville Prison.

Due to her fame as a nurse, Barton received the majority of the credit for the work of the Andersonville expedition and Missing Soldiers Office. While touring the nation, lecturing on the suffering of Andersonville’s prisoners and displaying artifacts she had collected at the prison, Barton was hailed as “Heroine of Andersonville.” The Andersonville Survivor’s Association inducted her as an honorary member and the Andersonville expedition to identify graves became known as Barton’s expedition. She only accompanied the already planned expedition and mainly wrote letters while at Andersonville, but never identify any graves as often claimed.

 Her work in the Missing Soldiers Office and support of Dorence Atwater are her greatest contributions to Andersonville’s story. In Fall 1865, Atwater was court-martialed and jailed because of a dispute over ownership of the Andersonville Death Register. Through Barton’s efforts, he was finally released. She also supported his publication of the Death Register. Although, she is often mistakenly given credit for identifying prisoners graves at Andersonville, she deserves a great amount of credit for her efforts to account for missing soldiers at Andersonville and countless battlefields.

With all of this pain and death, it is not surprising that Andersonville Prison has stories about supernatural experiences there. Many of the experiences are sensory, both audible and olfactory. One can image that the scent of several foul things is detected here. The stench comes from inside the prison. Sounds range from gunshots to loud cries, whimpers and whispers from the formerly alive prisoners. Marching has also been heard. EVPs have been collected over the years featuring these cries and distant gun shots.

People claim to feel the sadness and extreme fear that clings to the area as if whomever is still here in the afterlife is continuing to feel torment and despair. Apparitions have been seen walking in the fog that sometimes coats the grounds. They appear as shadows moving in the mist that never seem to truly emerge. Many believe that the Raiders who were hung here for their crimes against their fellows are angry and still walk about the camp as though they still wield some kind of power here. There is also the spirit of Father Whelan who seems to still be here taking care of and comforting the disembodied just as he did when they were all still living.

Many men lost their lives here during a war that split this country and left so many devastated. Emotions of all kinds were high at this time and so it is no wonder that something seems to be carrying over to the afterlife. Are these former prisoners still at the prison? Is Andersonville Prison haunted? That is for you to decide!

Show Notes:
National Park Civil War Series: The Prison Camp at Andersonville, William G. Burnett, Published by Eastern National, 1995
The hauntings at the prison: http://www.ghosteyes.com/andersonville-prison-haunts

HGB Podcast, Ep. 103 - Glamis Castle

Moment in Oddity - Roman Legion in York
Suggested by listener: Toby Hessenauer

In 1953, an assistant plumber by the name of Harry Martindale was doing some work in the cellar of Treasurer's House in Chapter House Street near the Minster in York. Poor Mr. martindale was all by himself in the cold and dank cellar. He was working tediously when suddenly a blast of sound rocked him to his core. He could have sworn that he just heard the blast of a horn or trumpet. But why in the world would anyone be blowing a horn down in the cellar? He looked about to see if he could find the culprit. There was no one else in the cellar. He began to wonder if it was possible for sound to have come through the thick stone walls. He placed an ear to the stone, feeling silly since he knew the cellar was underground. Then he got the shock of his life. A Roman soldier on horseback suddenly rode right through the wall. And that was not all. This soldier was soon followed by a whole legion of foot-soldiers, each carrying lances and swords and wearing the armour and helmets of a Roman Legion. They marched two men wide right past Mr. Martindale. The plumber noticed that the mens calves and feet were below the floor, so they must have been marching on a lower level. The group disappeared into the opposite wall never indicating that they saw the man. Even more surprising is the fact that archaeological investigation has revealed that a Roman military station used to exist in this very spot. And that a road did indeed used to exist where the Treasurer's House now stands. Seeing a ghostly legion of soldiers while working on some plumbing, certainly is odd!

This Day in History - The Mud March
by: Jessica Bell

On this day, February 7th, in 1907, The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies organizes their first large procession called The Mud March. The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies was created from seventeen individual groups that were advocating women's suffrage. The Union held public meetings, organized petitions, wrote letters to politicians, published newspapers and distributed free literature. The main demand by the Union was for the vote on the same terms "as it is, or may be" granted to men. The Mud March comprised of more than 3,000 women from all classes. These women gathered in London on a cold and miserable day to march from Hyde Park to Exeter Hall a route that would have taken them past Buckingham Palace, St. James’ Palace, the National Gallery. Thousands of spectators lined the route, as the sight of women of all ages, classes, and professions marching side by side in horrendous weather through a muddied street was a novelty worth withstanding the elements to witness. Newspapers and magazines in Europe and in the United States fixated on the diversity represented in the march. These marches would be a common practice for the Union until women (over 30) finally won the vote in 1918, however the vote wouldn’t be extended to all women over the age of 21 until 1928.

Glamis Castle (Suggested by listener Heather Williams)

Glamis Castle is considered the most beautiful castle in Scotland. It won the prestigious Best Attraction Award UK 2015. This castle dates back to the 14th century and has remained in the hands of one family for centuries. That family is the Bowes-Lyons Family, now known as the Earls of  Strathmore. Members that have lived here include members of the Royal Family. Not only is there a deep history to the land, but legends and lore abound here as well. Glamis Castle is also considered one of the most haunted castles in the United Kingdom. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of Glamis Castle.

The lowland valley of Strathmore in Scotland is home to Glamis Castle. The castle is named for the village that it is located nearby. The estate encompasses a massive 14,000 acres. Before the castle was here, the area was home to the Picts. The Picts date back to the 6th century and were around until the 9th century. They left behind monumental stones that are intricately carved with symbols and inscriptions known as Pictish Stones. Initially, the Picts were thought to be uncivilized tribal wildmen who fought off the Roman legions, but scholars and archaeologists have found them to be quite different people who were Christianized and built monasteries. And they appeared to build with the "Divine Proportion." This ratio of dimensions is 1.618 to one and appears in nature, such as in the spiral of seashells, and the faces of people considered beautiful, such as Marilyn Monroe. The Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris was built with this measure as was the Alhambra palace of Granada in Spain and the Acropolis in Athens. Even the Egyptian Pyramids used this measure.

Robert II was King of Scots from 1371 to 1390. He was the grandson of Robert the Bruce. He appointed Sir John Lyon, Thane of Glamis, Keeper of the Privy Seal, which was one of the Great Offices of State, upon his succession. Sir John became Keeper of Edinburgh Castle and Lord Chamberlain later and he held those titles until his death, which seems to be caused by murder. He was killed while he quarreled with the nephew of the King, Sir James Lindsay of Crawford. Sir John was the husband of King Robert II's daughter and the King gave them Glamis Castle, which was built in 1376. The castle consisted of a central keep and was built in a block style. It was enclosed within a fortified court.

The castle was rebuilt with an L-plan tower house in the 15th century. The L-plan design is built just as it sounds: in the shape of an L. This design was very popular in Scotland. It was an expansion on the typical block towerhouse, which was easier to build, but made defending the entrance of the castle difficult. The L-plan made defense much easier. More changes came for Glamis Castle in the 17th century. The West Wing was added, as well as a small north-east wing containing the chapel, which only seats 46. Most of the fortifications were replaced with things that would add beauty to the castle like sculptures, courts and vistas.

The trees that criss-cross the property were planted in the 18th century. Other additions to the castle at this time were a Billiard Room, updated kitchens and a new service courtyard was installed beyond the East Wing. The Bowes-Lyons had an estate near Gateshead called Gibside that had a beautiful fireplace with the coat of arms of the Blakiston family that was moved to the Billiards room at Glamis Castle. Sir William Bowes had married Elizabeth Blakiston, which is why the coat of arms was moved. The West Wing was demolished and remodeled and the grounds were groomed into open parkland. The style of which was Capability Brown. Capability was an English landscaper. His given name was Lancelot, so we're not sure why he changed it, but he changed the face of 18th century England with his designs. He believed strongly in the principles of comfort and elegance.

In 1797, the East Wing's roof was replaced with Castellations. In 1820, the main avenue was replanted and the Dutch Garden that is in front of the castle was planted in 1893. The Italian Garden was planted in 1910. The castle as it stands today is magnificient. There is a large central keep and several corner towers all capped with the conical roofs that castles are known for having. There is a central stair tower, a crenellated roofline and several projecting turrets. There is also a clock tower that houses the family history and archives.

The grandson of Sir John, Sir Patrick Lyon, was the first to have the title Lord Glamis, which was created for him in 1445. The 6th Lord Glamis, another John Lyon, married a woman named Janet Douglas. The 6th Lord Glamis died September 17, 1528 from poisoning. It was believed that his wife Janet had done the deed. She was accused of this crime and she was also accused of treason in December of that year. Janet hated King James V of Scotland as did her entire family. She had brought supporters of the Earl of Angus, who was her brother, to Edinburgh. The King had imprisoned her brother for his acts against him. So there was no love loss here. Eventually King James found a way to do away with Janet for good. He had her accused of witchcraft and thrown in the dungeon at Edinburgh Castle. Her family members were tortured into claiming that Janet did indeed practice witchcraft. The punishment at that time was burning at the stake and Janet was burned at the stake. You might recall us talking about this in the Edinburgh Castle episode. She was the woman burned at the stake in front of her son.

With Sir John Lyon dead and Janet now dead, King James took Glamis Castle for himself and lived there for a while after 1537. In 1543, the castle was returned to the Lyon family. The Bowes family was a coal mining family and they had become very rich. Mary Eleanor Bowes married John Lyon, the 9th Earl of Strathmore, in 1767 and that is how the Bowes family became part of the Lyon family. During World War I, the castle served as a military hospital. Kind of like the story line on Downton Abbey.

Glamis Castle has many claims to fame. Mary Queen of Scots and her entourage visited Glamis in 1562. Shakespeare wrote Macbeth in 1603 and his main character lives at Glamis Castle. Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon was born in 1900. Our listeners know her by her more popular moniker, the Queen Mother. She married Prince Albert and they lived at Glamis Castle when her second daughter Princess Margaret was born. Meaning that Queen Elizabeth II lived at Glamis Castle for part of her life as well. Glamis Castle appears on the rear side of ten pound notes issued by the Royal Bank of Scotland. The current owner of the castle is Michael, 18th Earl of Strathmore & Kinghorne.

Legends abound with this property. One of the most well known legends is that of the secret room. Stories claim that it was made for what was described as a monster. This tale is similar to ones we have covered in other episodes in which a child is born horribly deformed in some way, which would not be surprising with royalty since they did a lot of inbreeding, and is hidden away from the public. The child in this story is the first born son of the eleventh Earl. He was born in 1821 with deformities and the family decided to tell the public that he had died in child birth. He was then locked up inside a secret room. On the castle ramparts is something called the 'Mad Earls Walk,' which is where the disfigured child would exercise. A second son was born and when he was of age, he was told about his brother. When he looked in on his brother still in the secret room, he found him to be healthy and incredibly strong. And the legend claims that the older brother lived for over a hundred years. A tradition was started after this in which the secret of the hidden room is told to the next heir on their 21st birthday.

There are other stories behind the secret room. Supposedly the room became public knowledge when a workman was doing some renovating and accidentally broke a piece of a wall, revealing the secret room. He was given a large amount of hush money, but apparently it was not enough. And then as happens with these sorts of things, the public started telling stories about what that room could have been used for. One story was that a vampire child was born to the family each generation and that it was walled up in this room. Another story was that the family used to keep their enemies in the room until they starved to death. This tale may have been inspired by the true story of the Ogilvie family. In 1486, the Ogilvies came to Glamis Castle seeking protection from their sworn enemies, the Lindsay family. The Ogilivies were shown the secret room and invited to stay there where they remained for a month. They were given no food or water and when the room was opened again, they found only one of the Ogilvies still alive and he had apparently eaten parts of the rest of the family to keep from starving to death.

Proof of the secret room has been sought. One time years ago, several guests decided to try to find the room. They hung towels outside all of the windows that they could access and they found that one window had no towel. Was this the secret room? People have also tried counting all the windows from the outside and then counting the windows on the inside and there are claims that there are always two more windows counted outside then inside.

There is also the legend about a family curse connected to the castle. Sir John Lyon was tempted to remove an ancestral chalice from the family seat at Forteviot. He took it even though the law stated that the chalice must remain in that seat forever. Thus a curse came upon the family. Is this where the idea of vampire children being born in each generation started?

There are many stories about ghosts at the castle. One of the more unfortunate tales is that of Jack the Runner. He has been seen running around outside the castle and he cries out in agony. Jack was a black slave in the 17th century and one day the Earls decided that it would be fun to hunt a human rather than a fox. So they grabbed Jack and told him to run. He was impaled by lances and the hunting dogs ripped him apart. He is not the only black slave who haunts the castle. A young black slave was horribly treated here in the 1800s and died and now is said to haunt a stone seat by the door of the Queen's bedroom.

The grounds are haunted by an unknown female apparition. Whatever happened to her was cruel as well. She appears to have no tongue in witness reports, so she must do something with her mouth to reveal this to people. Her face appears to be mutilated as well. The best guess as to her identity would be that she was a young woman who was possibly a servant in the castle and that she stumbled onto the secret room and its horrors. She ran from the castle and two royal guard were sent after her. They engaged in the practice of silencing her, which was using iron tongs to rip out her tongue and then throwing it on a fire. Normally, a silenced person was left to bleed to death, but this woman is said to have had her neck broken and then she was fed to wild boars on the grounds.

The small family chapel plays host to the spirit of Janet Douglas who was burned at the stake at Edinburgh Castle. She has returned to her home in spirit form and has been dubbed the Grey Lady. She has been witnessed many, many times by visitors and many of these sightings have been very recently. The Grey Lady is seen at the Clock Tower as well. Sir David Bowes-Lyon decided to take a walk after dinner one night as he rounded the castle, he caught sight of a girl gripping the bars outside of one of the castle windows. She appeared to be trying to get out. He started to walk toward her to find out who she was and she suddenly disappeared, leaving him quite shaken.

A female guest stayed at the castle one evening. The next morning at breakfast she was asked how she had slept. She commented that she had slept soundly until the carpenters woke her up at 4am with all their hammer banging and such and that she thought it was weird that they worked so early in the morning when people would be sleeping. The people sitting at the breakfast table all stared at her in silence. Finally, someone said that there was no construction going on in the castle anywhere. The woman was immediately scared and the head of the house asked that she not relate this story to anyone else.

Probably the most infamous ghost at the castle is that of Earl Beardie. In the research, two names come up and there is discrepancy as to who the real Earl Beardie is, but then again, we are talking about a ghost here. The story dates to the 15th century and is either about Alexander Lyon, 2nd Lord Glamis or Alexander Lindsay, 4th Earl of Crawford. The key part is what the Earl Beardie is alledged to have done. He was a man who liked to play cards and he took a gamble with his words one day when no one would play cards with him. It was the Sabbath and his hosts refused and the servants also refused to play and warned him about playing cards on the Sabbath. He became enraged and declared that he would play until doomsday, every day, and that if he had to, he would play with the very Devil. Shortly after that, a stranger in dark clothes came to the castle. You've probably guessed who that stranger was and you'd be right if you guessed the Devil. Earl Beardie gambles his soul and loses and the Devil condemns him to play cards until doomsday. Some claim that his soul is in the secret room, playing cards for all eternity. Others claim that they have seen Earl Beardie wandering about the castle or leering over children in their beds. The disembodied sounds of dice rattling and a man swearing have been heard.

Glamis Castle has hosted royals for its entire existence and still houses the members of the Royal Family. This may not just be the living members of the Royal Family, but those who have passed on into the afterlife. Are these legends about the castle true? Is Glamis Castle haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Podcast, Ep.102 - Skirvin Hotel

Moment in Oddity - Phantom Time Hypothesis

Heribert Illig believes that much of what we know about the Middle Ages is just made up and he calls his theory the Phantom Time Hypothesis. Illig is a German historical conspiracy theorist that believes the Early Middle Ages dating from 614-911 was fabricated through alterations, misrepresentations and downright forgery and that Charlemane himself never existed. Part of the evidence he points to is the fact that Romanesque architecture is seen in the tenth century, so only half a millennium could have passed since the fall of the Roman Empire. He also points to the lack of archaelogical evidence. Who did this and why according to Illig? The Holy Roman Emperor Otto III, Pope Sylvester II, and the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII, instigated the alterations and they did it so the Anno Domini dating system placed them at the special year of AD 1000. Let's not ignore the fact that more than Europe's history would have to be altered to support Phantom Time. The Papacy history and Islamic history would need changing too as well as many other regions, including Asia, whose Tang Dynasty observations on solar happenings like Halley's Comet are current and match the calendar without Phantom Time. Romanesque styling still makes its way into architecture to this day. So does the history we tell you about on this podcast really exist? How about what Dan Carlin is talking about on Hardcore History? Stuff You Missed in History Class is probably just made up too. Perhaps the time you are in right this very minute doesn't exist. This is all just a figment of your imagination. A big ball of Phantom Time. Now that, certainly is odd!

This Day in History - Prince Mutsuhito becomes Emperor Meiji of Japan
by: Jessica Bell

On this day, February 3rd, in 1867, Prince Mutsuhito becomes Emperor Meiji of Japan at the age of fourteen. Emperor Mutsuhito adopted the reign-name Meiji (meaning enlightened government) and ruled in that name from 1868 to 1912. Emperor Meiji presided over a time of rapid change in Japan, as the nation rose from a feudal shogunate to become a world power. He supported the growing popular consensus on the need for modernization of Japan along Western lines that had developed as a result of the country’s resumption of contact with other nations after a 250-year period of cultural and economic isolation. The restoration of the emperor as sole ruler of a unified Japan came to be known as the Meiji Restoration. Emperor Meiji's advisers believed that the strength of Western nations depended on constitutional government for national unity, on industrialization for material strength, and on a powerful and well-trained military for national security. Most Japanese took to Western technology with enthusiasm. Between 1868 and 1885, Japan acquired postal services, a telegraph system, railways, banks, and steam-powered overseas shipping lines. Universal education was introduced during the Meiji era, which was intended to produce a high level of literacy and knowledge of science, and to infuse children with traditional morality and virtue.

Skirvin Hotel (Research Assistant April Rogers-Krick)

Westward expansion was pulling people from the east into the wild west. Oklahoma City was a boom town from 1898 to 1909 and many people flocked there. William Skirvin was one of those people who came to Oklahoma City and he built a hotel that has survived into today. The Skirvin Hotel was meant to be the most grandiose and fancy hotel in the area. And it was, hosting some of the luminaries of the day. For a time it was abandoned, but today, it is a property of Hilton and still hosting guests from around the world. But the Skirvin Hotel seems to be hosting more than just the living. This hotel is considered by some as the most haunted location in Oklahoma. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of the Skirvin Hotel.

The 1830s saw things changing drastically for the Native American people. President Andrew Jackson's first major piece of legislation was the Indian Removal Act of 1830. This allowed the government to evict the Native Americans east of the Mississippi River from the lands they were living upon. Most people are familiar with the Trail of Tears. This was the route that these evicted Native Americans followed into what was deemed Indian Territory in the West. Five main tribes were affected and these tribes were the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muskogee and the Seminole. They are referred to as the Five Civilized Tribes. The reason for this name is that Native Americans had been encouraged to learn to read and speak English and convert to Christianity and these five tribes adopted those customs deeming them as civilized to the White Americans.The journey on the Trail of Tears was difficult and deadly. It ended in Oklahoma, which was known as Indian Territory. Listeners might recall us referring to Oklahoma with this name in the last episode about the 101 Ranch.

The Western part of Oklahoma was considered "Unassigned Land" and so many pioneers decided to settle in that area, which included Oklahoma City. These pioneers were called Boomers and the government was not happy with them basically squatting on this land, so it held a series of land runs so these pioneers could claim land. A land run is when the government opens up previously restricted land to homesteading. The way the land is claimed is first come first served basically. The Boomers were not necessarily wrong with what they were doing because the Homestead Act of 1862 stated that settlers could claim 160 acres of public land and they considered Western Oklahoma to be public land. After the land run was announced, some settlers tried to stake their claim to the land before it was legal and this group was called the Sooners. *Fun fact: The University of Oklahoma used Boomers as its mascot before changing to Sooners.*

Oklahoma became a state in 1907, shortly after the land runs. Guthrie was the territorial capital, but in 1910 Oklahoma City, which was incorporated in 1890, was declared the capital. Oklahoma City was oil rich and this brought about the oil boom, which brought many people to the city. Many of these oil men would bring about other business and trade for the city

The Skirvin Hilton was originally named the Skirvin Hotel. This is the oldest hotel in Oklahoma City. The name Skirvin came from its founder William Balser Skirvin, known as W.B. It was Skirvin's desire to build a high class hotel that would be considered the finest accommodations in the area. Skirvin was born on November 10, 1860 in Michigan near Sturgis. He grew up on the family farm there. Skirvin's mother died when he was eight and his father left for business, leaving Skirvin and his sister in the care of their grandmother. He lived with her until he was fifteen and then he set off on his own, finally ending up in Kansas selling farm machinery.

Skirvin later got into real estate and when the Oklahoma Territory opened up, he and a partner went in and bought property in Guthrie. He later moved his family, which included two daughters and a son to Galveston, Texas. He survived the hurricane that all but wiped out Galveston in 1900. Six thousand people lost their lives in that storm and one of those people was nearly Skirvin, who risked his life several times to save others. After losing his home in the storm, he got involved in the oil business. This made him a rich man. He relocated to a growing city in Oklahoma named Oklahoma City in 1906. He again pursued real estate and then set his focus on building a hotel. Before that happened, his wife passed away in 1908. He would never remarry, but rumors would arise later that he carried on a relationship with a maid at the hotel he would soon build. The real truth is that he probably had a relationship with his bookkeeper Mabel Luty, but she outlived him.

Construction began on the Skirvin Hotel in 1910 at the corner of First Street and Broadway in Oklahoma City. The architects were Solomon Layton, Hicks & Forsyth and Kahler Slater. Two ten story towers were built with 225 rooms. In 1926, a third tower was added that rose to thirteen stories. In 1930, all three towers were raised to fourteen stories to make them all level. The hotel had a total of 525 rooms after that expansion. The lobby's floor was originally laid with white tile, but in later years carpet covered over the tiles. A newspaper ad in The Daily Oklahoman dated from Sunday October 1st, 1911 for the opening reads:

"The Skirvin Hotel which has just opened its doors to the public at Oklahoma City is the best hotel in the Southwest and the most modern in all hoteldom. A sterling hospitality that is unrivalled in its warmth and sincerity radiates everywhere from this splendidly equipped hotel. The Skirvin Hotel is complete in every detail and absolutely fireproof. The rates are as moderate as will be found anywhere.

 The Skirvin Hotel is ten stoires in height, of pleasing architecture and contains 225 rooms, each with an individual private bath. The lobby of the Skirvin is of English Gothic and furnishes the motif for the decorations and furnishings throughout the interior of the hotel. A comfortable, homelike atmosphere prevails everywhere which first impresses you with its kindly warmth the moment you enter the lobby. The hotel has two large entrances, one from Broadway and the other from First Street. Courteous employees are quick to anticipate your wants and to fill them promptly and quietly.

(Writing really tiny here so hard to see.) Convention Hall, Banquet Room and the Mezzanine Floor are furnished and [can't read] luxurious style. The [can't read] lighting system is used. The Grill Room in the basement and the Cafe on the first floor are sumptuously furnished and [can't read the rest.]

Afternoon tea will be served in the tea room, which adjoins the mazzanine floor. The Tea Room has been daintily decorated by hand in delicate designs and will be the afternoon rendevouz for fashionable people from all over the state. Special care is provided for unaccompanied women and children and a maid attends to their every want and comfort with constant attention.

There is not a more modern kitchen anywhere than that which serves the excellent meals provided at the Skirvin. Everything is snowy white. Absolute cleanliness prevails to the last degree. All the tables, shelving, etc are of white [can't read] metal. Here, as in the cafe, is a superb ventilation system and the cold storage is the latest design. A capable chef is in charge of a corps of seasoned experts who have reduced cooking to a known science.

Mr. Frederick W. Scherubel, general manager of the Skirvin Hotel, has a wide acquaintance with and knowledge of the needs of the travelling public of the Southwest and in this hotel has met their every requirement. No better host nor hotel can be found anywhere."

Peggy Wullich, a desk clerk in the 1940s, said of her experience at the hotel, "It was great working the at Skirvin. I was there when Bob Hope came. It was an elegant place — overstuffed chairs, guests sitting in the lobby, reading the paper. I also danced for Katherine Duffy at WKY in the Skirvin Tower. A lot of people from New York would come in for showings of clothes, and I would model for them. The Skirvin was more elite than the other hotels. The Biltmore was good, but it just didn't compare to the Skirvin.”

Skirvin's daughter was Perle Mesta. She was the American Ambassador to Luxembourg. She was dubbed "the hostest with the mostest" because she hosted the best and most lavish parties in Washington, D.C. for dignitaries. An invitation to one of her parties meant that one had truly arrived and was now a part of the inner circle. Irving Berlin's musical "Call Me Madam" is about Mesta. 

On March 12, 1944, Skirvin was in a severe car accident and sustained several life threatening injuries. He lingered until March 25th and then passed away from his injuries. His necrology was written by Fred P. Branson and ends with "It can justly be said that he was one of the outstanding stalwart citizens of Oklahoma, his adopted State, and his efforts produced marks of progress, which are now, and will continue to be for a long number of years, not only useful institutions, but monuments to his efforts and name."

Dan James, a hotelier, bought the hotel from Skirvin's children after his death. He paid $3 million for the property and held onto it for 20 years. The next 23 years saw the hotel passing through many hands. Some of the famous people that stayed at the hotel included, Jimmy Hoffa, Roger Staubach, Harry Truman, Frank Sinatra, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Elvis, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Bob Hope.The hotel was segregated during much of this time and blacks could only enter if they worked on the custodial or banquet staff.

The Skirvin Hotel was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. Nearly ten years later, in 1988, the hotel closed. It stood abandoned for fifteen years, but after a $46.4 million renovation, it was opened once again. Interestingly, before this project, a Native American group came in with a proposal to turn the hotel into a casino. The restoration tried to bring the hotel back to its historical roots by incorporating the same designs in the tiles, ceiling treatments and moldings as the original hotel. Historically accurate windows were installed and the exterior was finished as it had once been. Upgrades were made in meeting rooms to make them state-of-the-art, new elevators were installed, the lobby was updated, new restaurants were opened and guest rooms were updated.

Sadly, an article we read from April 2015 in The Oklahoman reported that the rules that accompanied tax credits that paid to restore the hotel have now expired and the current owners plan to tear out much of the historically restored items, including the tiles in the foyer. This tile dates back to the hotel's opening. While the floor is hard to maintain and similar tiles cannot be found, we hope the change is not related to money and that these owners are not preparing to destroy the history of the Skirvin.

It is thought that during the prohibition years, high class “social escorts” may have made their way to the Skirvin Hotel and made their way past the main desk to service gentlemen guests. Being that the hotel is so big, it would be hard to keep track of what was going on in all 225 guest rooms. It is thought that one of these young woman may have been killed in one of the rooms. Guests of the hotel have said that they have heard the cries and screams of a woman.  Strange noises and items being moved by an unseen presence have also been reported.  Male guests have reported hearing a disembodied female voice proposition them.  Sometimes when a male guest is showering, a naked female appears in the bathroom. One male guest reported waking up to an amorous female entity in his bed. Is this the ghost of one of those high class call girls?

It is also rumored that W.B. Skirvin himself had an affair with a young maid, and a pregnancy resulted.  To avoid a scandal and what would quite possibly be the ruin of his name Skirvin is said to have held the maid captive on the top of the 14th floor, during and after her pregnancy.  The woman was in such distress that she would scream and bang on the door, but no one would help her.  She eventually went mad and jumped out a window to her death with her baby in her arms. Thta's one version of the story. Another version leaves Skirvin completely out of the story, but reports the same story about the maid jumping from the ledge with her baby. Perhaps she was suffering from a combination of postpartum depression, abandonment by her lover and a sense of hopelessness. The name of the maid is unknown and so in the 1970s and 1980s the staff took to calling the apparition Effie. Her apparition has been seen wandering up and down the hallways. She has also been seen standing near the window she jumped from.  One witness said they saw Effie run to the window like she was going to go out and then faded away into nothing.  It is also said that the cries of the baby can be heard and has been known to keep female guests awake.  The cleaning carts have been seen rolling up and down the halls with no staff in site as well.

Starting around 2010, after the Skirvin had reopened and the Thunder basketball team moved to Oklahoma City, other NBA teams would stay at the Skirvin when coming into play.  The New York Knicks claimed creaks and groans caused a sleepless night that then caused them to lose the game against the Thunder the next night.  A player for the Chicago Bulls could not explain why his bathroom door slammed shut and why there were strange noises out in the hallways. A player for the Phoenix Suns woke to find his bathtub filled with water. (We had another haunting in which this phenomenon happened too.) Sports commentator Reggie Miller phoned into the Dan Patrick radio show to talk about the NBA playoffs. He mentioned his experience with Effie the ghost. Miller said when he went to bed he placed his water bottle on the night stand and when he woke up it was somewhere else.  For him this confirmed the legend of Effie.

Jesse Powell was a security guard who worked at the hotel during renovations. He wrote, "I actually worked security during its renovation. I worked while the building was being cleaned and restored. I can tell you for sure that the building is haunted. My partner and I were up on the 6th floor looking out a window and we heard someone running up the stairs. The building had been locked up tightly and no one could have possibly gotten in, so we took off down the hall and up the stairs, me at one end and my partner at the other. We ran all the way up checking each floor and found no one. Many times we heard people in the hallways and looked out and found no one there."

A cook has claimed to hear pots and pans banging into each other at night and upon investigation, found no one else in the kitchen. Guests report other strange oddities. Could it be that some spirits from the past are still making the Skirvin their home? Is the Skirvin Hotel haunted? That is for you to decide!

Show Notes:
Necrology for W. B/ Skirvin: http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v022/v022p363.pdf

HGB Podcast, Ep. 101 - Miller Brothers' 101 Ranch

Moment in Oddity - Elmer McCurdy Stuffed

Elmer McCurdy was a bandit. He made a huge mistake in his criminal career when he decided that his next robbery would be of a passenger train in 1911. For some reason, he thought the passenger train was going to be loaded with thousands of dollars. He forced the train to stop and boarded the train. Despite his efforts, he only made off with $46. Lawmen went after him and finally caught him. They shot him dead. McCurdy's body was taken to the local undertaker and he was embalmed with an arsenic preparation. Time passed and no one came to claim McCurdy's body, so the undertaker sold the body to a traveling sideshow to serve as an exhibit. Over the course of 60 years, McCury's body traded hands from sideshows to haunted houses to wax museums. When that kind of time passes and the number of previous owners grows, the fact that the prop is actually the embalmed corpse of a man becomes forgotten. McCurdy finally ended up at an amusement park funhouse. The TV show "Six Million Dollar Man" decided to use the funhouse as a filming location in 1976. People were fooling around and poor Elmer McCurdy's finger broke off and everyone quickly realized that this stuffed prop was actually the body of a human. The cops were called and the Los Angeles Coroner was able to figure out that the body belonged to McCurdy. He was then buried at Boot Hill Cemetery in Dodge City, 66 years after he was shot to death. An embalmed human corpse being mistaken as a stuffed prop, certainly is odd!

This Day in History - Ham the Chimp Goes to Space

On this day, January 31st, in 1961, Ham the Chimp was launched into space from the Cape Canaveral space center. During the Soviet/US Space Race, it was decided that it would be best to test the effects of space travel on animals before using humans. An intelligent animal would be needed. One that could be trained to push buttons. The American test facility had 40 chimpanzees available and from that roster, eight were chosen to go through rigorous training. Once the training was done, there was no doubt that Ham was the best candidate. His journey to space was a 17 minute long suborbital flight in which he reached a speed of 5,857 mph, reached the altitude of 157 miles above the Earth and Ham experienced six minutes of weightlessness. Blue lights were used to indicate to Ham when he needed to push certain buttons and he performed perfectly. Everything went fine until Ham was returning to Earth. His return capsule suffered loss of atmosphere. If not for his special space suit, he would have died. Because of this success, the first man was launched into space on May 5, 1961. That man was Alan Shepard. Ham the Chimp became an instant celebrity after his successful space mission. He appeared in several TV shows and in documentary films. He retired to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. where he lived for 17 years until his death on January 19, 1983.

Miller Brothers 101 Ranch (Research Assistant April Rogers-Krick)

The Miller Brothers 101 Ranch was a 110,000 acre cattle ranch in the Indian territory of Oklahoma before statehood.  It is located near Ponca (Pong kuh) City in the Northern part of Oklahoma.  Colonel George W. Miller was a larger than life man who founded the Fabulous 101 Ranch in 1893.  The 101 Ranch was the birthplace of the 101 Ranch Wild West Show and one of the early focal points of the oil rush in northeastern Oklahoma.  It was the largest diversified farm and ranch in America in its day and is now a National Historic Landmark. Today, very little is left of the ranch, but it would seem that several spirits still call the property home. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of the 101 Ranch.

On September 16, 1893, Col. George W Miller along with his wife Molly, three sons Joseph, Zack, and George Jr. and daughter Alma, staked their claim in the Cherokee Strip. Miller had been born in Lincoln County Kentucky in 1842. He was a veteran of the Confederate Army. After the Civil War ended, the Colonel set his sites on California, but he never got there. He stopped in Bliss, Oklahoma where he would make his claim. This claim was in the rich bottom land of the Salt Fork of the Arkansas River, some six miles southwest of what is modern day Ponca City, Oklahoma.  Here Col. Miller relocated his growing cattle operation.  This would be his third ranch effort within the northern area of Indian Territory.
 
In the spring of 1895, Col. Miller began to plow 2000 acres of virgin prairie. His plan was to plant the land in order to winter Texas cattle.  By that fall several thousand additional acres of wheat was sown and produced 35 bushels an acre.  Seeking to expand his cattle and agricultural interest following the opening of the Cherokee Strip by land run, he and his sons began buying additional property along with lease agreements from the Ponca Indian Tribe. The 101 Ranch expanded to some 75,000 acres of pasture and farm land.  With hard work and good fortune, the Ranch grew to an estimated 110,000 acres. 

In January 1903, Col. Miller passed away from complications of pneumonia and the ranch was taken over by his three sons, Joe, George Jr., and Zack. Molly and Joe took the Colonel back home to Kentucky to be buried. Upon returning home, the family continued with plans to build a new home. The new house, which was a large white frame house characteristic of prosperous families of the day, was finished by Christmas of 1903. It became known as the White House.

After taking over the daily business and running of the 101 Ranch, the Miller brothers built a herd of 25,000 longhorn and developed experimental and highly successful agriculture applications. Led by Joe Miller, the brothers additionally developed large herds of Holstein, Shorthorn, and Hereford dairy cattle along with Duroc-Jersey hogs. Their swine production alone resulted in their ability to ship 10,000 hogs a year to market.  They also planted large orchards.

In 1905, the National Editorial Association of St. Louis made plans to hold its annual newspaper editors convention in Guthrie, Oklahoma. Joe Miller scheduled an entertainment gala for the influential visitors at the 101 Ranch. Drawing inspiration from a quickly passing period of America's Old West, the Miller brothers put on an extravaganza they promoted as a “Round-up”. Souvenir programs offered during the event additionally billed the Oklahoma Gala as a Cowboy Reunion, Indian Celebration, Buffalo Chase and Historical Exhibition. At least 200 local cowboys, ranch hands, and Indians took part in the show and arrangements were made to have imprisoned frontier warrior Geronimo brought to the ranch under military guard from Fort Sill.  With assistance, the aging warrior killed a buffalo in the arena from a motorcar, signed autographs and sold souvenirs.  The Millers also advertised in area newspapers they would offer a $1000 prize to anyone who would submit to being scalped by Geronimo!

The event took place on June 11, 1905 and more than 65,000 people were in attendance.  Overflow crowds easily filled a huge grandstand built for the event.  Performing ranch-honed skills, cowboys and cowgirls paraded about the huge grandstand that was located on the south side of the Salt Fork River. Vividly costumed Ponca, Otoe, Kaw, Missouri, Tonkawa, Pawnee, and Osage Indians took part along with

marching bands, soldiers and ,of course, Geronimo.  Along with Geronimo’s mock buffalo hunt there was trick riding, bucking horses and a performance by the Bulldogger from Texas, Bill Pickett. Pickett was of African-American and Cherokee descent and was the son of a former slave. Pickett invented the technique known as bulldogging. This involves grabbing cattle by their horns and wrestling them to the ground. It can be quite dangerous. Pickett was famous for this technique and his performance in numerous wild west shows. And he eventually even acted in movies. He died in 1932 when a bronco kicked him in the head. The gala ended that evening with an unannounced frontier style wagon train attack by Indian performers.

This incredible performance garnered national attention for the 101 Ranch and brought them into the venue of western entertainment.  The show was so successful, Joe Miller and his brothers formed the 101 Ranch Wild West Show and it began to tour the United States in 1907. Joe was a highly skilled equestrian. By 1914, the 101 Ranch Wild West Show began touring Internationally.  They performed in England, the European continent and South America. Several of the performers who joined the brothers in the show were Bill Pickett, Lillian Smith, who was a trick shooter and rival to Annie Oakley, Bee Ho Gray, who was trick roper and highly skilled with the Australian black snake whip, Tom Mix, who was Hollywood's first mega western star and starred mainly in silent films, Mexican Joe, who was an expert rider and roper and for whom Jim Reeves' song "Mexican Joe" was written, and the master wild west showman himself, Buffalo Bill Cody. During WWI, the 101 Ranch Wild West Show took a hiatus from 1916 to 1924.  In 1925, the Miller Brothers entertained the King and Queen of England along with an estimated 700,000 spectators during thirty-three performances.

The 101 Ranch itself was much more than just cattle and crops.  It was a community of industry, unseen by anyone in Indian Territory before this time.  In 1908, a lawyer and oilman from Pennsylvania by the name of Earnest Whitworth Marland showed up at the 101 Ranch looking for oil. Marland would eventually become a governor of Oklahoma. Marland walked and studied the ranch property and the surrounding vicinity that included outcroppings of rocks and geologic formations and rolling prairie.  At that time, the 101 Ranch included about one hundred thousand acres.  Only about ten thousand of the acres were owned outright by the Miller Brothers, the remainder of the lands were held under lease from the Ponca Indians. 

Mr. Marland was convinced that the Ponca Indian cemetery was a distinct oil formation.  He told George Miller he would agree to drill a test well if he would give him a lease on the 101 Ranch lands and help him obtain the necessary leases from the Ponca Indians. It took a large amount of time to convince the tribe members to give them a lease on the cemetery and on the surrounding land. And we're actually shocked they did with how the Native Americans revered their dead and burial lands. In February 1909, the first location was staked.  The lease included 10,000 acres on the 101 Ranch and 4,800 acres from the Ponca Indians.  The lease on the cemetery was sold to George Miller provided he would not drill within the area where they were burying their dead.  A half interest was given to Marland on condition he would do the drilling. 

The first well drilled near the headquarters of the 101 Ranch was a non producer.  About five miles from the first, the second well was drilled.  At a depth of five hundred feet, an extraordinarily large flow of gas was struck in the spring of 1910.  An old Ponca Indian named, Running-After-Arrows, witnessed the bringing in of the first gas well on the 101 Ranch.  He had never seen or heard such a thing before.  George Miller, who was present, explained to him in the Ponca language what a gas well was, but Running- after-Arrows could not understand the roaring gas coming from the interior of the earth.  He considered it to be an evil omen and a sign of coming destruction.  “Uh-h, no good, no good,” he grunted “Beautiful country all die now. Cattle die. Ponies dies. No good, no good. Beautiful country soon all gone.”  No one knew that the Indian’s prophecy would soon come true.  The plains became spotted with oil derricks and herds of cattle gradually gave way to huge tank farms.

The production of raw materials was still very important to the 101 Ranch and they continued to market them. The ranch produced virtually every kind of raw product- wheat and corn, cattle and horses, hogs and chickens, alfalfa and kafir, fruit and vegetables, buffalo and elephants, camels and longhorns, ostriches and peacocks, work mules and cow ponies, the bizarre and the common. Yes, you heard that right, this ranch had elephants, peacocks and ostriches. *Ever eaten ostrich? It's not like chicken. It's a red meat and very delicious!* The ranch had its own meat packing plant where they employed all the modern processes of slaughtering, packing, and distributing meat products.  It had a daily capacity to process a hundred hogs and fifty cattle.  It provided huge cold storage and cooling rooms for the proper handling of meats. The surplus hogs and cattle were slaughtered in the plant and the sugar-cured hams and home cured meats were sold in large quantities.  The meat products were sold and delivered by refrigerated trucks within a one hundred mile radius of the ranch. 

Soon after starting the packing plant, a large amount of raw hides accumulated.  The price offered for them by the tanners seemed to be extremely low compared with the price of finished hides, so the Miller Brothers built a large tannery close to the packing house.  Soon after the tannery was built, a large cyclone swept it away, leaving only the foundation.  A second tannery was built and operated for only a short time when it too was destroyed, this time by fire. A third tannery was built, but the cost of the tanned hides had dropped from fifty cents a pound to three cents a pound. The Miller Brothers, ever resourceful, pivoted and began making harnesses and saddles. 

The 101 Ranch had its own dairy as well.  A modern dairy barn and creamery were built and housed five hundred registered Holstein cows and took care of the dairy products.  In connection with the dairy there was a modern day ice cream plant, cold storage and cooling rooms for the proper handling of the dairy products.  The dairy was capable of taking care of milk from five hundred cows.The milk was made into butter, ice cream and cottage cheese. The dairy products were sold and delivered by refrigerated trucks for miles around the ranch including merchants in the towns of Marland and Ponca City.  The dairy also had a large shipping trade in butter, ice cream, and cheese. 

The Miller brothers were among the first to produce moving pictures.  Performances in roping, trick riding, bronc riding and bulldogging for movies were staged on the 101 Ranch rodeo grounds.  Finding it difficult to feed the hundreds of actors at lunch time while out on location, Will Brooks, a cousin of the Miller Brothers, had the idea to provide a sack lunch for everyone.  The sack lunches consisted of sandwiches, cakes and fruit. Each sack would contain the same kind and amount of food.  At lunch time the actors and crew would line up and march by, each taking a sack.  Water, coffee and milk were available for those who might want a different drink.  All the food was produced on the ranch.

The 101 Ranch operated a general store. It was the mercantile center in northern Oklahoma for a number of years.  Originally started as a supply place for their large number of employees, the Millers eventually expanded until the store became a supply center for fifty miles around.  It was a combined department store, which also carried ranch products of all kinds and Indian Store operating somewhat as an old time trading post. The 101 Ranch Café evolved from the old “ranch chuck house” to a modern day restaurant.  The café was furnished, pleasingly designed and tastefully decorated.  The café chefs prepared delicious meals and every piece of food with the exception of olives, sugar, and coffee was produced on the ranch. A special building was erected and equipped for the cider and canning industry.  Approximately two hundred barrels of cider were manufactured each fall.  All of the cider was pasteurized, thus keeping it sweet and making it possible to market at any time.  Several thousand pounds of apple butter and jelly were manufactured annually as well. 

A modern laundry was operated by the Miller Brothers.  It was equipped with modern machinery and did all the laundry work of the ranch, including that for its employees.  In addition, it served the needs of the surrounding county. The ranch had its own machine, blacksmith, woodwork, and repair shop.  The shop was equipped with all the power machinery and tools needed in these line of work.  Two blacksmiths were kept busy shoeing horses and repairing farm machinery.  In addition to the ranch work, the shop served the needs of the farmers of the surrounding community.

There was an ice plant with a capacity of ten tons daily maintained on the ranch. The plant provided ice for the ranch and its employees as well as the farmers of the community.  Three large cold storage plants were provided for the proper handling of the meats and perishable products of the ranch.  The ranch had its own electric light plant, system of waterworks and general power plant.

One of the most interesting industries was the novelty factory.  All kinds of Indian rugs, beaded belts and clothing, drums, bows and arrows, silver jewelry and much more were manufactured in the factory by Indians employed by the Miller brothers.  A large assortment of souvenir leather goods such as cowboy belts, boys’ chaps and vests were also manufactured and sold. But just as Running-With-Arrows predicted years back, all was soon to come crashing down.  By 1927, The Miller Brothers realized they were slowly losing everything. The 101 Ranch and Wild West Show were plagued with mortgages, crop failures, low prices for stock and bad seasons for the show.  Throughout the 1927 tour, the Wild West Show encountered foul weather, fierce competition, rising expenses, and injuries to personnel and spectators, which often ended in costly litigation.

The afternoon of October 21, 1927, Joe Miller who was only 57 years old, was found dead on the floor of his garage. Beside him was his car, which was idling and the car door was open. A pocket knife and several screws were on the running board. The attending physicians and others called to the scene surmised that Joe had been tinkering with the car engine and had been overcome by carbon-monoxide fumes. It was decided that Joe would want the show to go on.  So with Zack Miller and his nephews running the show, the 101 Ranch Wild West Show launched another six month tour in April 1928. On the home front, George Miller tried to manage the ranch and pay off mounting debts due to crop loses, a severe decline in oil and gas royalties, and ironically, the heavy financial drain of the road show. 

In late January 1929, George spent a week in Texas looking over new oil properties and inspecting a wildcat well being drilled southeast of Big Spring.  He returned to Oklahoma and on the evening of February 1st he met a few cronies at Ponca City’s Arcade Hotel for an evening of cards and conversation.  In the wee hours of the morning of February 2nd, after playing numerous games of pitch and having several rounds of drinks, George left.  During the night, a combination of sleet and snow had begun to fall and city streets were slick and dangerous.  His friends tried to convince him to stay, but always a gambler, he bet his pals that even with the foul weather and bad roads he could be at the ranch in record time.  Fifteen minutes after his big Lincoln roadster roared off into the dark, George Miller who was just 47 years old was killed.  He died instantly at about 2:00AM on Highway 77 southwest of Ponca City. His car apparently had skidded and overturned on an icy curve.  When he was found, his body was pinned beneath a front wheel with his head crushed. 

Faced with numerous problems and on his own now, Zack Miller, who was 50 years old at the time of George’s death, fought on.  Even with the all the financial issues, he managed to produce the Wild West road show for three more years.  By the end of 1930, as creditors closed in on Zack and the 101 Ranch suffered a net loss of more than three hundred thousand dollars, he stubbornly took the show on the road one more time. He tried and failed to sell the show. On March 24, 1932, everything on the ranch save for the White House and its contents went on the auction block. Zack who called the public auction “legal robbery” was arrested and briefly detained for chasing lawyers with his shotgun. After posting bond, he returned home and to his bed, suffering from what doctors diagnosed as a nervous breakdown.  On April 2nd he received more bad news.  Bill Pickett, the faithful bulldogger, had died in Ponca City hospital, two weeks after having been kicked in the head while taming an unbroken chestnut gelding at the 101 Ranch. Pickett was loyal to the Millers and the 101 Ranch to the end, so he was buried near the stone "Monument to White Eagle" that was south of the ranch headquarters.  Others buried on that windswept hill along with Pickett were James E “Curbstone Curby” Smedley, an ox-team trainer for the Miller’s show, Henry Clay, a black cowboy who had taught Will Rogers some rope tricks, Gladys Hamilton, the nine-year-old daughter of one of the ranch's hired hands and Jim Gates, a farm laborer who had been shot to death at a dance.  Pickett’s favorite bulldogging horse, Spradley, was said to have been buried nearby too.

Throughout the years Zack Miller had many ups and downs.  On January 3, 1952, Zack Miller closed his eyes for a final time at the age of 73.  He died in Texas where so many years before his father had swapped hog meat for steers to start the Miller Kingdom.  Zack was brought home to Oklahoma, back to the land he loved. He was laid to rest close to the banks of the Salt Fork, deep in the earth of Cowboy Hill. All these years later, there is hardly any physical trace of the 101 Ranch remaining.  The land was divided up and eventually all traces of the buildings were either lost or delapidated.

In 1987, a mysterious fire destroyed the historic 101 Ranch Store, which for many years had served as the home of Zack Jr and his mother Marguerite who took her own life there with a revolver in 1963. There are numerous stories of haunting activities on the 101 Ranch and some paranormal groups have had their own experiences and caught a few EVPs that are rather scary to listen too. Numerous witnesses say melancholy cowboy melodies and residual phantom voices can be heard around the site. 

A group called The Society of the Haunted has been to the 101 Ranch to investigate several times.  Cathy Nance, their case manager, details a time when they were in the basement of the White House, which was the only building remaining on the property. They received positive EMF meter readings, which could not be debunked by checking electrical connections because there is no working electrical wiring on the ranch now. After a thunderstorm passed, they were able to make EMF contact with what they believed was an entity that haunts the basement of the White House.  It is said that on many occasions this unknown entity has answered a few question. This is a picky spectre though. Ask too many questions or get too pushy and it leaves. Cathy said that after a particularly intense question session, the entity told them to leave audibly and this was heard by all members of the group.  The same group has claimed to hear drum beats coming from down by the river. 

The group Oklahoma Ghost Patrol claims to have had camera trouble everywhere on the property and cemetery hill. The only place where their equipment has worked properly is in the basement of the White House. Another local paranormal investigator claims to have been touched in the basement ruins. Third World Paranormal reported, "Our team had a handful of things happen to them while on the property. We experienced shadow figures, disembodied voices, voices captured on the ghost box, strange noises (bangings coming from the metal closet in the basement area), smells, anomalies in pictures, K2 activity, and being touched. Tommy made the spirit of Zack Miller upset by accidentally calling him Joe. Hildy kept feeling like there was someone on top a building looking at us. One of the quirks always experienced at Cowboy Hill for sensitive people, is when they touch Zack's headstone it feels like a surge of static electricity."

April grew up in Ponca City and before she moved away twenty years ago, she had her own experience at the 101 Ranch ruins.  She's not sure if the experience was paranormal in nature or not. One early evening, as she was driving near the 101 Ranch, she decided to stop and check out the historical site. She could hear what sounded like hooves beating across the prairie. And she could hear what sounded like soft songs on the winds along with the whoops and hollers of invisible cowboys.  She felt as though she could sense the many different souls that had passed through the lands. Was it all in her head? Whether it was her imagination or a real supernatural experience, she knows that there is no way a person can stand on the grounds of the 101 Ranch and not be overcome with the possibility of what once was there and all the emotions enveloped in the land.

The 101 Ranch seems to have been a city unto itself. It was a marvel in the production of nearly everything the Great Plains were known for from dairy, to cattle raising, farming, oil drilling and much more. Have the spirits of disturbed Native Americans risen to haunt the land? Are the former residents of the 101 Ranch still living here? Is the Miller Brothers' 101 Ranch haunted? That is for you to decide!