Tombstone Tales Brings The Dead To Life

By Curtis D. Tucker, Enid Buzz | Monday, October 3, 2016
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ENID, Okla. - Normally a nighttime ride through a cemetery full of tombstones would evoke scary thoughts and make most people uneasy. The Tombstone Tales Lantern Tour is the complete opposite. It's a historical tour that uses reenactors to bring to life those that are buried in the Enid cemetery.
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The costumed characters portray historic or unique personalities who once lived in Enid. Groups of about two dozen are pulled on a trailer behind a tractor and ride through the cemetery. There are about 10 lantern stop where reenactors approach the trailer to tell their historic stories.
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The intent of the tour is not to scare and it is appropriate for all ages. The evening brings to life historical facts that many residents are not aware of. The tour is presented by the Chisholm Trail Coalition, a nonprofit organization that also does historic walking tours around the Enid square.
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The 2016 tour included a few new members of the cast. Chuck Lipps portrayed Jimmy Hays, an old barnstormer pilot from the 1920's and 30's. Chuck is a 1980 graduate of Enid High that now lives in Fairview. He enjoys singing and doing voice overs and thought this would be something fun to do.
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Chuck's character, Jimmy Hays, is buried in the Enid cemetery mausoleum but his wife is buried right near the road where Chuck portrays his character. Hays fell in love with flying after seeing Clyde Cessna flying over Enid for the first time. Hays went on to fly of oilman, Charlie Knox. Lipps goes into detail about some of the stories from those past flights.
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Other Enid residents that have been portrayed include Dolly Douthitt, who's plot has the tallest headstone in the cemetery. Douthitt shot her husband for “messing around” with the hired hand’s daughter and later took a gun to the courthouse and tried to shoot the district attorney and a judge.
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Another character was a 15-year-old, that had been kidnapped by the Cheyenne Indians and held for two months. There is a Civil War veteran who won the Congressional Medal of Honor buried there plus a man who lost his life when he was gunned down inside the Tony Faust Saloon. This is just to name a few.
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All in all it takes about an hour to see the entire lantern tour with about 10 stops along the way. The organizers now use four trailers pulled by tractors, leaving about every 20 minutes, rather than the old wagons pulled by horses that they once used. The tour is very popular and grows every year.
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To get tickets, patrons have to get them all ahead of the tour. This year tickets went fast and there was a waiting list of 40 people. I asked why they don't add more nights to the event and was told that it's tough to get volunteers to do the reenactments.
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From my experience the night I was there it was about a four hour commitment each night. If the weather had not been perfect it could have made for a very long evening sitting in one spot waiting on the next group. Volunteers do not get paid so recruiting new actors can be challenging.
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If you would like to get involved in some way with the cemetery or downtown historic tours please contact Errol Wofford at Soapweeds & Cactus or call 580-242-2233.
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More info on their website at chisholmtrailcoalition.org.
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