The Electric Park

The Electric Park

In July of 1908, Supt. Greene convinced the Secretary of the Interior to OK the installation of electric lights in the residences of Rangers Townsley, Earl and Maxey. There were also electric lights installed in the barns of the rangers so they do not have to use kerosene lamps when they need to saddle their horses at night.

Greene also wrote the Secretary another letter in July asking that parts of the West Central Park from the Vendome area to Pavilion Springs and from West Second Street to the Pavilion Springs be lighted. He explains that the area of the park is very densely wooded and unless there is full moonlight the "darkness is intense".

The area is frequented nightly by hundreds of visitors during the tourist season and that they expect the area to be safe for life and property. Unfortunately he relates that although the rangers are on nightly patrol, "there is a vicious element of both sexes here who, taking advantage of the fact that the peace officers of the city and county have no jurisdiction in the park, commit many offenses . . . and are able to escape arrest and punishment".

Greene proposes that electric lights be installed every two hundred feet along the two proposed paths and a total of eleven lights be installed. The Sulphur Light and Power Company offered to install and maintain the lights for a sum of $92.40 per year.

In August, Greene writes to the Secretary informing him that the new electric lights seem to be working at lessening the problems afore mentioned. There is now a rule against loitering in the Park after 11 P.M. Greene states that there is generally public outcry against the enforcement of the curfew and laws that "public sentiment seems to be opposed to a strict enforcement of the laws against vice and immorality on the grounds that 'it will hurt the town'".

Within this very month, Rangers arrested an elected Murray County official for an adulterous affair with a woman from Dougherty inside the Park limits. This incident really fanned the flames to the point that the Rangers were threatened with death and told by elected officials of the City to"let up" on the towns leading citizens.

In August there is a primary election. Ranger Maxey had previously registered to vote in Ward 4. Nothing was said at the time of his actually living in the Park although the registration people were fully aware that he resided inside the reservation. The officials of Sulphur are getting ugly by now.

When Maxey arrives to cast his ballot he is refused the right to vote by the election board saying that he is not a resident of Sulphur. Supt. Greene wrote to the Oklahoma Attorney General at the state capitol in Guthrie asking why his people were denied the right to vote when the precinct lines are drawn through the Park connecting the North and South Sides of town.

In September Greene writes to the Sulphur Light and Power Company telling them they have thirty days to remove their water pipes from Rock Creek and Park property by order of the Secretary of Interior. This is the only water available for the generation of steam since the City still has not run water mains. Greene then writes to the City wanting to know if they have done anything to get their wells drilled and water mains run.

Greene then writes the Wesco Supply Co. in St. Louis wanting information on a water-powered electric generator and he tells them he plans to install the generator at Antelope and Buffalo Springs. Greene is about fed up with the "hit and miss service" and wants the Park to generate its own electricity.

In July of 1908, the Secretary finally consents to the installation of electric lights in West Central Park from the Vendome to the Pavilion Springs. He also gives permission to run electric lights from the entrance on West 1st to the Pavilion Springs. There is supposed to be eleven incandescent lights and Greene is instructed to enter into a contract for service.

One must remember that Supt. Swords asked for permission, of the Secretary, to enter into contract for electric service in Central Park but was denied the expenditure. When Greene arrived and took charge in May of 1907, he wrote a scathing letter of Swords, to the Secretary. The crux was that the Secretary had denied permission to install electric lights in Central Park.

Technically, the Secretary denied the expenditure of money for the lights. Apparently some civic organization was paying for the lights. Apparently, also, Greene had the lights removed for he is now asking for lights to be installed once more.

The problems with the prostitution, illegal whiskey and other vices occurring in Central Park are getting to the point that the three Rangers are having difficulty keeping the area policed twenty-four hours a day. The almost inky-blackness of night and dense undergrowth make it all but impossible to see the activities of the miscreatants.

Park Rangers finally put an end to one rather ingenious scam ran in the darkness of West Central Park. The scheme was that a prostitute would proposition a male visitor at night in the darkness of the Park. Just as they were getting "down to business", a man would suddenly appear and "arrest" the visitor. The victim would be shown a badge, told that he was a "federal peace officer" and that the victim was under arrest for immoral conduct. The victim would then be told he could pay his fine right on the spot if he wanted to avoid public embarrassment. The supposed peace officer was actually the City dogcatcher and the badge was his dogcatcher's badge.

The Secretary naively asks Greene why the city police and county sheriff cannot assist in policing the area. He is apparently not aware of the general animosity between the Park staff and the City fathers as well as the recent arrest of an elected county official or that the City dog catcher was arrested for impersonating a federal lawman in the Park.

On October 5th, 1908 Greene appoints Robert S. Bailey and Willis L. Townsley as Special Park Rangers for ten days at $3 per diem including horse and equipment. They replaced the three regular Rangers who were away testifying in court at Muskogee. This did not let the Park go totally unprotected during their absence.

The Sulphur Electric and Refrigeration Company was the electricity supplier for the City and the Park in 1911. The Park and the Company had a contract to provide electricity to the park office, buildings and residences as well as eleven outdoor lights in Flower Park and the Pavilion Springs, four lights on Lincoln Bridge and two lights on Washington Bridge, seventeen outdoor lights in all, as well as the Bromide Pavilion and the Watchman's residence.

One of the items covered in the contract was that the electric company would keep and maintain the outdoor lighting including replacing burned out bulbs. In the spring of 1911 most of the bulbs in the outdoor lighting were burnt out.

Over a three-month period, April through June, Superintendent French made numerous phone calls, sent letters and on one occasion sent Ranger Townsley to talk to the president of the company about replacing the outdoor light bulbs, all to no avail.

The wires were broken and lying on the ground so often that one of Ranger Townsley's daily chores was to ride the electric lines looking for down power lines.

The Park paid their light bill in flat-fee quarterly installments. This quarterly payment amounted to $23.10. Supt. French was so upset at the lack of effort of the electric company to replace the burned out bulbs that he calculated the usage and cost of the burned out bulbs at $7.64. When he paid the bill for the quarter, Supt. French deducted the cost of the outdoor lighting, since there were no bulbs, from the bill and sent the remainder, $15.46, to company.

On the evening of July 17, 1911, the electric lights came on and burned in the Superintendents residence for about five minutes and then went off. Mrs. French called the electric company to see what the problem was and they told her she probably had a burned plug and to call an electrician. Mrs. French informed the foreman at the electric generation house that the entire park was dark.

Superintendent French got on the phone to the foreman and demanded to have the lights turned on. The foreman told the Superintendent to call the president and manager of the company, a Mr. V. A. Swanson. French did call the manager and again demanded to have the current turned on immediately.

The manager informed him that since his bill was not paid in full, the current would not be forthcoming to the Park. In other words, the Park had been disconnected because they did not pay their electric bill.

French wrote to the United States Attorney General requesting that he assign a local U. S. Attorney to force the electric company to live up to their contract. The Secretary telegrams French telling him to contact the U. S. Attorney in Muskogee with details of the situation.

When the U. S. Attorney arrived in Sulphur, his first task was to read the contract between the Park and the electric company. He then took a tour of the Park inspecting the outdoor lighting and then went to Sulphur and interviewed various businessmen and asked about the reliability of their electric service. He discovered that their service was about like that experienced in the Park.

In a letter to the Secretary, French reports that the U. S. Attorney did visit Sulphur on the 25th of July and did visit with the manager of the Sulphur Light Company. The Attorney, after inspecting the Park, informed the manager that if electricity was not immediately restored to the Park, not only would the Government sue for breach of contract, they would also see that their franchise be revoked. The lights came on that night and Mrs. French was undoubtedly very happy.

The July 28, 1911 edition of the Sulphur Post reported that the U. S. Attorney had visited the Park and Sulphur and the lights were now on in the Park.

In August, the light company informs the Park that they will no longer furnish light bulbs as part of their contract. French takes bids for bulbs. He notes in a letter to the Secretary that the 16 candlepower bulbs are only 17 cents each but he prefers the more expensive tungsten filament bulb at 63 cents each.

In the same letter, French surmises what the whole problem may have been. It seems that the Sulphur Light Company had leased the Vendome from the owners. The Vendome consisted of a skating rink, bowling alley, a bathing pool, arcade, picture show and an occasional prizefight or dance.

What the electric company was doing was turning off the power to various parts of the Park and City after dark to force the populace and visitors to their facility to increase profits and attendance.

The visit from the U. S. Attorney apparently help the president of the electric company "see the light". The electricity never went off again.

An interesting bit of trivia is that the very first structure built in Platt National Park, expressly designed to use electricity, was The Lincoln Bridge (1909).