Territory Tattler Reviews Mingo Creek

This review of The Ghost of Mingo Creek has appeared in the Winter 2009 issue of Territorial Tattler:

The Ghost of Mingo Creek is a wonderful collection of short, sharp stories. This group of tales can be read and enjoyed by lovers of legends, from teenagers through adults. Oklahoma has a wonderful history of the ethereal and dramatic. Rodgers is a noted storyteller and word weaver.

There are stories of spectral sightings in Tulsa, an Oklahoma Bigfoot, and a doodlebug. A doodlebug was someone who could sense where oil was. This story tells how Uncle Fred passes on the gift and how the boy grows up with it. One tale takes place in Ardmore where the heroine is dared to run around Mr. Apple’s grave, asking if he was home. As a streak of light bolted, all three teens ran with a surprise ending. The Kiamichi County is Choctaw country in the southeastern area of Oklahoma. Blessed with deep isolated woods, this area is still relatively wild and has produced many stories. Out after dark, along the riverbed, a family is chased by something breathing loud and hairy! Could it be a Bigfoot?  During the year in l957 Oklahoma City, a lion was loose. Lee, the local paperboy, out on his route finds more than the wet morning dew. Will anyone believe that he saw that lion?

In other parts of the state there are tales of treasure, monster fishes and even a witch! Along the Wichita Mountains, meeting a treasure-hunting stranger has an interesting outcome for those intent on the “gold.”  Read about the “whopper of a fish story” that Raymond and Robert Wilkinson tell about the Red River monster. A young girl sees an old woman blamed for illness, but later she gets help for her sick grandson from an unlikely source.

All the stories have a wonderful way of weaving the true and the not so true into a fabric of the probable. The tales hold certainly will hold one’s attention. While there is no index, there are notes in the back giving the history or legend these tales refer to. It makes you want to learn more about these Choctaw and local history legends, a must read! — reviewed by Dianne Fallis