May 18, 2008 01:10 am
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By Violet Spader
Staff Writer
A group of history buffs were tourists in their hometown Saturday morning as they participated in the Chisholm Trail Coalition’s walking tour of downtown Enid.
“You live here your whole life, and you’d miss this if you’re not careful,” Mary Evelyn Adams, of Enid, said.
In their second season of “trail tales,” the Coalition promotes the history of the Chisholm Trail with emphasis on the Enid area.
Tour guide Errol Wofford, aka “Cactus Jack,” told tour members downtown was a busy place in Enid’s early days.
“A lot happened on the Square,” he said.
Points of interest included the Walk of Fame, located in the plaza of Cherokee Strip Conference Center; the Boomer statue commemorating the Land Run of 1893; the horse watering trough at Grand and Maine; the “death room” of John Wilkes Booth on the top floor of Garfield Furniture; the World War I doughboy statue; the site of the original Enid land run office; a marker commemorating the first sermon preached in Enid on Sept. 17, 1893; a replica Statue of Liberty; the Keeper of the Plains and Tri-State Music Festival statues; Ruth Monro Augur’s Depression-era murals in Garfield County Court-house; the first water well in Enid, in front Security National Bank; and the site of the first jailhouse in Enid — where the current post office stands — where outlaw Dick Yeager died.
Re-enactors narrated their characters’ stories, providing details like the square footage covered by the courthouse murals — 1,136 — and the number of people involved in the 1893 land run — about 100,000.
Russ Frazee, of Garfield Furniture, discussed the ongoing legend — “not myth” — of the site of the death of David E. George, whom some believe to have been John Wilkes Booth.
The official record states Booth was shot in a barn near Port Royal, Va., and died April 26, 1865, after he had been on the run for the assassination of President Abraham Linc-oln.
Frazee puts Booth’s date of death much later, Jan. 13, 1903, in room four of the Grand Avenue Hotel, Enid.
“The gentleman killed in Virginia didn’t look like Booth (according to witnesses),” Frazee said. “We believe he got away, moved to the Deep South, then moved west.”
David E. George, the alias Booth was using, according to Frazee, killed himself by drinking strychnine.
The body was mummified and displayed in Enid for two years after his death. Eventually the body was lost.
“There’s been no DNA testing done ... so the legend is still a mystery,” Frazee said. “It’s a tale which interests a lot of people.”
Adams said she enjoyed the tour.
“I like history this way, rather than out of a book,” she said.
The walking tours are held every third Saturday of the month and are almost two hours long. Reservations are required by calling 242-2233. Tickets are $5 per adult and $1 per child.
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