Wednesday, May 27, 2009

MAYES COUNTY


CRYBABY BRIDGE
THE STORY: One day long ago a baby had drowned while parents were picnicking. It is said that if you drive over Crybaby Bridge in Pryor, Oklahoma at night you can hear a baby crying. The bridge has since been torn down, but some residents claim that a faint noise of a baby crying can be heard either coming from the woods near the site of the former bridge or below where the bridge once stood. There are a number of other quaint old bridges in the area. The 9th Street Bridge in Pryor is also rumored to be haunted by a ghost that will let few unsuspecting people see it. EVIDENCE: Anecdotal. There are multiple instances of the urban legend of the Crybaby Bridge across the United States. Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crybaby_Bridge


SIDE POCKETS POOLHALL
THE STORY: Located in Pryor, Oklahoma, where more that 50 people were killed during the tornado that struck on April 27, 1942. The tornado ranks as the fifth deadliest in Oklahoma history. Originally named "Coo-Y-Yah", Cherokee for "huckleberry", the city was later renamed Pryor Creek, then shortened by the US Postal Service to "Pryor". Local folklore holds that pool balls flying off tables, balls and tables found rearranged in the morning. One resident reports that the paranormal activity occurs at the location of the original pool hall, now a diner, and not at the current location of Side Pockets Poolhall. EVIDENCE: Photographic evidence.



THUNDERBIRD YOUTH ACADEMY
THE STORY: According to locals, many years before it was a military school it was a orphanage. A tornado hit the orphanage on April 27, 1942 and killed many of the children who lived there. The Thunderbird Youth Academy in Pryor, Oklahoma was launched in September of 1993 under the National Guard Bureau, as a three-year federally funded pilot program. Permanent funding was obtained in September 1996 when the state of Oklahoma allocated funds to support the program. The cuirriculum draws upon a "quasi-military" approach. Two quiet friendly spirits are said to have been observed wandering the campus. The third platoon building is reported to be haunted by a child named Hector. Other residents have reported paranormal activity in a storage room near the nurses station. Other TYA residents have reported lights going on an off, a ball rolling across the floor, shadowy figures moving across hallways, etc. According to one witness if you are awake at night you can here the talking and laughing of children. The witness reported being awakened at night to see a small girl standing next to his bunk. There are different legends about Hector told by residents, including that he was killed by the cook at the orphage and fed to the other children, and that he was hung by the custodian. In all accounts Hector was reported to have been a "difficult" child. EVIDENCE: Numerous first hand eye witness accounts reported by former TYA residents.

33 comments:

  1. If not haunted it is for sure a haunting place, in the girls building the sinks sit low,built for children's height. I was at TYA in the winter and the whole campus seemed to be lost in a grey haze even in the sunshine..at night you get this feeling of not being alone. in my day they were using a carpeted room as a sick room it was built like one of those "padded cells" that you see in movies. my question is if it was an orphanage..why the padded room?

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    1. I always wondered the same thing about the room. Also the freezer in the DFAC was used as a morgue to store dead bodies because so many people died from the tornado

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    2. I spent time in the sick bay. in the padded room..it was built because they had a gospital at wetc and they used to have troubled kids..I was a cadet..I graduated feb 15 1997.. google whitaker orphanage

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  2. The Bridge in the picture at the top, Part of it is still standing.

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    1. I was hoping it was I've went there many times as a teenager and was hoping to go again this year

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    2. That's not cry baby bridge that's the bridge that if your taking the back way past sportsman acres to get to locust and most of that bridge is gone now because of the water. I know exactly where cry baby bridge is me and my friends go out there ALOT.

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    3. Down going towards sportsman acres I believe there's an old o Brian cemetery called Albertys which was from 1800's and is not used anymore.its not even took care of,otitis it's just random people cleaning it up..I don't even think that's a true story k

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  3. There are many other activities that many civilians do not know. I just gratuated from Thunderbird Youth Academy and i lived in second platoon. I went to second platoon after not getting along with third platoon fellow cadets. Hector does in fact live in third platoon but he has also been spotted in second platoon. Halloween day this year,cycle37, my fellow cadets and i have seen hector with our own eyes in second platoon building, aslo known as 306.

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  4. I heard the legend of Crybaby bridge connected with the bridge on Hickory Street over Polecat Creek in Sapulpa. Scared me to death as a little girl in the 1960s. Not much of that bridge is left now.

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  5. i was told the TYA was built on an indian cematary not an orphanage. the name thunderbird in its self is an idain name almost hinting at its dark past. evan though the graves where removed the area still would be a sacred site, and could very well be haunted but not because of some orphanage that some one said was there.

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    1. I have live in pryor my entire life. It was an Indian school then was converted to an orphanage. It also was/is a okng armory. Only some of the buildings are used by tya

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    2. Tya was indeed an orphanage..my aunt grew up there until she was 18

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    3. my mother who was born in 1906 said it was an orphanage when she was a teenager and i am sure she knew because her brothers got in trouble for taking off with two of the girls that were there.

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    4. My wife was there in 1961.

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  6. As someone who has spent a lot of time at TYA and done some homework on the history I can set a few "rumors" straight.
    1. The tornado never hit the Whitaker Orphanage a far as I can tell from my research( Library has a excellent documentation on what happened with hundreds of newspaper clippings and I have talked to people who are still alive and remember what happened.)
    2. People who were hurt by the tornado were brought to the orphanage for triage. Some did die on grounds. (newspaper verifies that.)
    3. TYA as far as anyone knows was not built on a burial ground. The Thunderbird comes from the 45 infantry division headquartered out of OK city. All the youth challenge programs are named after the division they fall under.

    Having worked at TYA for a lengthy time I can say some rather unusual things happen and many of the staff have had unexplained encounters.

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    1. I remember the showers and sinks coming on by their self in the long building the females are in for the first two weeks when we're just candidates

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  7. I have heard the baby crying. When I lived in Pryor.

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    1. That's false,it's in your mind that story is fake

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    2. Besides that story is all over the United States it didn't happen

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  8. i just graduated from tya i was in first platoon in the new building and i heard a bunch of stories about Hector and the little games he plays with the cadets from the sergeants and a few past cadets and graduates
    i was told that once a sgt kicked the ball on the way to the old female barrics and she said the ball came back
    as well as how hector would mess with cadets shoes, the little girl laughing..and much more
    i do wish i would have been able to stay in old barrics rather than the new so i would have been able to hear more….

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  9. The bridge in the above picture is the old Lindsey Mayes Bridge over the Grand River between Pryor and Locust Grove (yes part of it is still standing.) Crybaby Bridge was over Pryor Creek in the industrial park and is now gone. It was on the east-west road that used to lead to the west side of Low Water Dam.

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  11. "Coo Y Yah" does not mean huckleberry.
    It is the Cherokee name for Pryor.
    It is basically Pryor Street, lol.

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    1. Lmfao!! Ummmm, no, it doesn't yoneg.. It does in fact mean Huckleberry lol

      #CherokeeRoots

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  12. I a former TYAA sgt. 12 yrs of employment and I have seen and heard almost everything about Hector there is, the paranormal activities are all true. When he started his pranks all you have to do is tell him to stop and he would. Former SS Townsend

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    1. The lights in the female dorms clicking on I the laundry room tgen the bathroom that night was crazy

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    2. How would you know that you did they allow you to stay in the girls dorms..to heard bout it? It's called HEARSAY

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  13. I moved to pryor in 1981 I fished under crybaby bridge and string bridge it seem to me when the wind is out of the south the creek gets a lot of wind.and the bridge cables whistle it gave me the chills at night till I seen what it was now the battle field by Adair there's somthing strang going on there

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  14. sorry but lynn may"s bridge isn't crybaby bridge its out by Cherokee hights.

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  17. I was just a cycle 55 graduate and i can confirm a lot on the TYA stories. I was in the first platoon new building and a few cadets and i played this game called Charley Charley and the pencil moved when we asked if hector was there. There was also 3 team leaders in the bathroom by the showers when we did this, everyone was a very good distance from the paper and pencils so no air or breathe hit the pencil. all us females freaked. I also remember around 3:44 in the morning i woke up and i looked off the top of my rack and i saw a little girl with a white dress, she giggled and ran off when her eyes met mine, and after seeing that. i had enough, that wasn't my first encounter with this little girl. I was showering one night along with other female cadets and the light in my shower flickered off. I opened my curtain and the girl on the other side of the stalls opened hers and we both sat there wide eyed as we looked out and saw the same girl in the white dress. she looked up at her and giggled and skipped off. 2 nights later my shower turned off by itself. and my shower shoes went missing. So yes these stories are true. On Halloween, the company watched movies in the gym all the lights were off and many male and female cadets claimed to see hector, as do it. to this day i still claim that hector is in fact real. - Graduate McBroom, Cycle 55 1st Platoon

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