April 2008
Greetings History Lovers!
It's that time again and I'm
afraid I haven't added much to the website since last I wrote. I
wanted to get out a newsletter, though, just to remind everyone
about the Spring History Tour of the Silica Mines.
I have received permission
from land owners for all of the silica mines near Meade. We will
meet at the Meade City Park on Saturday, April 26, and take off in
our caravan at 9:00 AM. First we will head north to the Cudahy
mine... this was the biggest and best know mine in the county. We
plan to have Pat Smith on hand to talk about his experience with his
grandfather scrapping the metals, equipment, etc. when Pat was just
a kid. We will visit two Midland mines while we are in that area,
then stop in Rod Ohnick's yard to check out one of the houses that
were moved from the Cudahy mine when that operation was abandoned.
Then it's back to the park for lunch, which will once again be
provided by Heart and Home Catering. After lunch we will head south
to the South Midland mine. Brian Hantla is traveling all the way
across the country to talk to us about the mines his uncle,
Albert Hantla, managed for the Midland Co. At this point you may
have the option of going on or calling it a day... I have to tell
you that all these mines look very similar.... it's just a good
opportunity to check them out first hand. We will go to at least one
more mine before the tour is over... I'm still waiting to see which
one. It's like a surprise ending!
If you join us for the history
tour, be sure to wear sturdy shoes and bring a pick-up or SUV if you
have one as we will be driving in pastures. If you don't have a
pick-up or SUV... we can always find you a ride... it's all part of
the fun.
One new addition to the
website is the Google Search box near the top of the
Home Page. This is a very
handy tool... you can type in a name (or a place or whatever) and it
will search Old Meade County dot com, and Prairie Books dot com. The result is a page with
links to every place that word is mentioned. A great way to find out
if your family is in a story on the site. (And if it isn't... let's
get something on!)
We've had some great
contributions lately... Alma Regier finally got the scoop on her
photo and we posted it on the
Meade County Farming photo page... go to the page and scroll
down to the bottom. If anyone knows anything about the HUGE tractor
in the photo, we'd like to hear about it.
Amy Parry sent us some great
old Meade High School photos from the early 1920's. Find them on the
Meade School page in
the Index of Photos. Pearl Runkle was Amy's grandmother and appears
in each photo. I was fortunate to have an old photo copy of the
class of 1921 and was able to name each graduate. Who knows, this
might be a great find for some lost relative looking for their past!
That's the beauty of Old Meade
County dot com. Recently it was discovered by the granddaughter of
Fred Taintor of the old GG Ranch just south of us in the Panhandle.
The Taintor name is very familiar to a lot of us... Doc Anzhutz
worked for Fred and wrote about his experiences on the GG in the
book,
"Cimarron Chronicles." I gave this lady a link on our
Museum page to the tour we
took in 2006 of the Taintor ranch... she wrote back that she was
"moved to tears" to see the old place. Folks this stuff is just FUN!
That's about all I have for
now... keep those comments coming and give some thought to sending
in your family history! I will leave you with this thought to
ponder....
Wisdom comes with age,
but sometimes age comes alone.
Catch you next
time!
Nancy O
