Marshall County History: Pettijohn Springs, Pt. II

Sometime between 1900 and 1906, Nannie Pettijohn and her husband Newton Morehouse Pettijohn began cultivating and farming land in the Randolph area of whatwouldbecomeMarshall County. The area encompassed amajornaturalspring that flowed out of the bluff, which is now the home of the Pettijohn Springs Christian Camp.

The Pettijohns built two houses and fenced large sections of the area. Nannie, Newton and their four children lived on the land. In 1904 Nannie was granted citizenship in the Choctaw Nation via intermarriage rights. Then in 1906, the Commission of the Five Civilized TribesgrantedNannie’s application for allotment of the land as a citizen of the Choctaw Nation.

From around 1900 until sometimearound1910,when they moved to Oakland, Nannie, Newton, and their children (Now five kids) lived, worked, and farmed the land. Even after moving to Oakland, it appears that the Pettijohns continued to farm the land.

The exact time is unknown, but at some point, after the founding of Madill in 1900, the area where the springs flowed from the earth, became a popular picnic spot for locals and travelers through the area. A story appeared in the Madill Record in April of 1923 that said the following about the springs and the area then called “Pettijohn Park.”

“Down in the valley, thru which a little creek winds its way towards the Washita, an everlasting spring gushes forth thru an iron pipe offering its sustaining coolness to the traveler and the camper. Beneath the shades of huge oaks, casual picnickers have found an inviting spread for their out-of-doors appetites, while campers have stopped their wagons and cars and found rest in a sleep with a star decked canopy showing thru the openings of the treetops. Pettijohn park - out on the Cotton Belt highway and the Denison-Oklahoma City interurban - out where the tourist can find a camp for the night. There’s an opportunity someone needs to seize.

For the next 10-15 years, the area known as “Pettijohn Park” was just a spot out in the country where folks could go picnic, camp, or otherwise relax and enjoy the springs and nature. It was not an organized park, and nothing was there but the spring, creek, trees, grass, and critters that inhabit wooded areas. And Moonshiners.

Because of the spring and the wooded, hills, the area became quite popular with bootleggers. The hills and woods provided solitude and cover, and the clean, tasty water gave the whiskey a fresh, clean taste There were repeated arrests, and multiple whiskey stills were found and destroyed in the area over the next several years.

Around 1915, the road from Madill to Russett was being rebuilt and would soon become the best road in the County. The road ran right past Pettijohn Springs. Construction was being conducted by D.B. Taliaferro. The road would eventually become Highway 70. It was also called the Cotton Belt Highway.

The area was also home to Red Wolves. Back in the 1700s into the early-mid 1900s, Oklahoma was home to two known species of wolves. Thegraywolfroamed the plains and prairies of westernOklahoma,whilethe red wolf roamed the hills of eastern Oklahoma.

A June 1917 story in the Madill Record relates how C.C. Bledsoe, who lived by Pettijohn Springs, came to Madill with four young red wolves that were part of a litter of six that he and some boyshadcaughtinaholenear the Bledsoe home.

It appears that the mother wolf had been raiding Mrs. Bledsoe’s chickens, and the boys took it upon themselves to capture the wolf. They found her den and smoked the mother out. She left the cubs behind and they then caught the cubs.

Mr. Bledsoe then gave each boy a cub and brought the other four to Madill. After showing them around town, he killed them and scalped them to claim a bounty. That was a standing policy for killing wolves.

It’s unfortunate that the policy in those days was to kill wolves in Oklahoma because today, the Red Wolf has been declared extinct.

By 1930, there were only two viable red wolf populations remaining in the wild: one in the Ozark/ Ouachita Mountain region of Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri, and the other in Southwestern Louisiana and Southeastern Texas. By 1962, Concern arose over the possible extinction of the red wolf. By 1968, the US Fish and Wildlife Service began a study of red wolves in southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana, and by 1971, field research in LA and TX found that coyote hybridization was increasing dramatically among the remaining red wolf population. As a result, theRecoveryProgramshifted its focus from preservation in the wild to capture and captive breeding.

The Endangered Species Act of 1973 was enacted as federal law and the US Fish and Wildlife Service officially began implementation of the Red Wolf Recovery Plan. Intensive capture efforts begin to start the captive-breeding program.

In 1976, one pair of captive red wolves was released on Bulls Island, but within two weeks, they were recaptured after leaving the island and returned to captivity. In 1978, a second release attempt on Bulls Island was deemed a success after the wolves remained on the island after 6 months in an acclimation pen. In 1980, the lastredwolveswerecaptured in the wild and placed into captivity thus, marking the extinction of red wolves in the wild. By 1988, the first litter of red wolves was born and then released on Bulls Island. Then two liters were born in the wild.

By 1998, 30 pups had been born to wolves in the in the recovery program. However, none survived except 2 that were removed from the program while still pups. By that same time, 26 of the 37 wolves released since 1991 had died or had to be recaptured after straying onto private lands. By 2015, approximately 50 to 75 wild red wolves existed in the northeastern North Carolina recovery area. Another 190 red wolves (approximately) lived in about 40 captive breeding facilities that were participating in the Red Wolf Species Survival Plan.

In 2017, a United States Senate report called for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to “end the red wolf recoveryprogramanddeclare the red wolf extinct.” That declaration occurred, and the red wolf that roamed the hills ofearly-day MarshallCounty no longer exists.

After the Cotton Belt Highway was improved, Pettijohn Park, or Pettijohn Springs as it was now being called, became even more popular with travelers and locals as a place to visit, picnic, relax, and, as the Madill Record explained, a place where folks “lunched and kodaked.” That is, folks took photos with those newfangled Kodak cameras.

Pettijohn Springs was also a popular place for group gatherings. Churches and civic organizations met at the park on a regular basis. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) frequented the park. In early 1924 the Madill and Tishomingo chaptersoftheKlanheld a big meeting at the park. There was abig speaking and a naturalization ceremony held. The event drew a huge crowd.

During these years, the Pettijohns began experiencing financial troubles. In addition to their allotment lands, it appears that Nannie and Newton had also purchasedothertractsofland in the area and the area of Oakland.Thenbetween1911 and 1924, various parcels of that land were listed for sale for delinquent taxes.

The Pettijohns were also delinquent in payment of personal property taxes on farming equipment. However, the land encompassing the spring was not placed on the delinquent tax rolls as it was Indian allotment land. And because it was allotment land, it could not be seized for payment of debts. But it would, at some point, become an opportunity for financial reliefforNannieandNewton.

In July of 1924, things were about to change in a major way for Pettijohn Springs. More on that in Part III.