Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: October 26, 1937
Field Worker: Pete W. Cole
Blue Hole is about two miles from Pleasant Cove Indian Church, which was once the only place for water especially in the summer time when all the creeks would be dry. This place has never been known to go dry.
Section 36, Township 2 North, Range 14 East, Atoka County.
HISTORY OF A CERTAIN STREAM NAMED BLUE HOLE WHICH WAS ONCE
A GATHERING PLACE TO FISH EVERY YEAR
One does not have to ask or inquire around to find out the ways of how the Choctaws lived, hunted, fished or had their places of amusements in their days, but what someone knows something about their sacred places.
At one time these Indians were a strong nation and their nation was as strong as any other nation. The Indians did not know any other way of living nor did they understand the mode of living of the white people when this country began to be invaded by the white people.
The result now is that what the young generation read in school books or hear is all they know of their ancestors and the sacred places of meeting where they held their worships, Indian cries, races, Indian ball games, fishing and other amusements is now a memory.
Some of these places have been converted into farms. Choctaw cries, races, Indian ball games, fishing streams and most of the Indian costumes, customs, family graves, Indian or pioneer dyes, paints, Indian medicine, dances, arts and crafts and such like have been abandoned and are only a memory. The young people still enjoy the stories of the olden days, but what they know of their ancestors of the past is just what someone tells them.
There is one small place in the eastern part of Atoka County that was known among the Choctaw Indians in the settlement of Pleasant Cove Indian Church just over the line of Atoka County in Pushmataha County. It is a small stream known as Blue Hole. This stream rises in the mountain in Atoka County and runs in an easterly direction. There is one deep hole at this certain place about one hundred yards long and about twenty of (sic) forty feet wide that is not known to have ever gone dry. The water is of a deep dark blue color and in the Summer or during the drouth, people from far and near drive to this place in a wagon for water. Church campers at Pleasant Cove hauled their water from this place for the congregations and it was once the place for a big fish fry every year for the hunting and fishing lovers among these Choctaws.
When we were still children our parents used to scare us and did not wish us to go in swimming at this particular place. One reason was that the water was too deep and another reason was that they had us to believe that there were large sea or water monsters, large sea snakes in the hole, and when they were creating excitement in their kingdom under the water, one could hear the ringing of cow bells, crowing of a rooster, and bleating of sheep. We were taught that some Indian Medicine had the power to bring all of these monsters to the surface and that if some of the children should happen to be near they would be sucked in the water with these monsters which would be the end of the children. We could hear the roaring of the wind through the pine trees and we were scared to death. The waves of water lapping and washing over on the sand bar would increase our fear so that we would not dare to go into the water. We learned as we grew older that this was only to scare us to keep us from going in swimming in the water.
Since that time the inhabitants of near this place have all died out or moved away and the deer and wild turkeys that once quenched their thirst at this place have been killed by hunters. There has been a sawmill and shingle mill set on the bank of this stream that was once a dreaded place and a fishing place for the community. Water that once watered all stock in the vicinity and was used by people attending church to water their horses is now only used to turn the wheel of a shingle and saw mill for the man who is living on the bank of this creek.
This place is down at the feet of a mountain in a lonely and quiet place in the corner of Atoka County and is known to all of the people who ever went to this place as Blue Hole.
Note: This article includes a hand drawn map that depicts the Blue Hole on Little Davenport Creek. This map shows the creek running between "Mountains" in a southeasterly direction. The sawmill and shingle mill are shown to the south of Blue Hole and to the east are Pleasant Cove Settlement and two church camps.