Local History

We took a little trip into the "country" today. Weather was great. Today's proof that you're never to old to learn. For instance, I learned that Stilwell was not the first town in this area, that it was actually Mayes. and it was in an area around Dahlonegah. The town was known to be rather wild... anyway when the railroad came through the area, they decided to move closer to the railroad. Which became Stilwell.
This picture is in front of the old Flint Courthouse, this was supposed to house a spring, in case you can't tell its in the shape of an arrowhead. I thought it was cool, spring actually runs out from the bottom of this.
This is the old wagon road leading into what would've been the old town. I changed the photo to antique because I thought it looked cooler. (Bet this is a pretty spooky road at night, make a cool spook trail)

This is the old Flint Courthouse, est in 1841. I'm told it was preserved in the 70's, but nothing since. I believe its all owned by Cherokee Nation, so hopefully they'll maybe do a little work to keep the place standing. Some of the wood shingles are falling off. I thought it looked better in Black and White, although with the brown grass and no leaves on trees, the only color was the blue sky...
From what I'm told, Indian Outlaw Ned Christie was killed in or near his Fort in the Wauhillau area and they traveled by wagon and the Flint courthouse was as far as they got on the first day. They were enroute to Ft. Smith. He was strapped to a door then propped up against this door to have his picture taken. (He was deceased). He was accused of killing a US Marshal and for 4 or 5 years they hunted for Christie. He refused to be tried in court for fear that he wouldn't recieve a fair trail in the "white man's" court. Which during that time he probably wouldn't.
This is the inside, unfortunately one of the windows was busted out, basically it was a wooden shutter.
This is the floor inside, I tried to lighten the pic, so you could see the flat rock floor, I think it was probably a beautiful floor when it was done. Can you imagine how hard it would've been to build this by hand, carrying everything on a wagon. Rocks on the floor are pretty large. It would be a shame if they couldn't save this.

That's my history lesson for the day. I'm told there's a model of the old town, so as soon as I can get a pic of it. I'll post it as well as one of Ned Christie's old fort.