Mon, Dec 01 2008
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Published October 09, 2008 05:47 pm - History: Spuds and paper: History’s mysteries continue By Liz McMahan Times Editor Editor’s note: This is one in a series of columns about Fort Gibson through the years. If you have photos or stories you would like to share, send them to lmcmahan@muskogeephoenix.com or call 684-2926. We’re still researching the story that Fort Gibson’s mascot originally was the Spudders because of the large potato crops grown in the area. While we haven’t found any information yet on when the name was either adopted or rescinded, we did run across an article in the Sept. 8, 1898, issue of the Fort Gibson Post newspaper about the area’s potential as a potato-growing mecca. J.R. Edmunds of Fort Smith, Ark., had been in town checking out the potential for raising potatoes here. “He says that the bottom lands in this vicinity is the place for growing Irish potatoes, and that it is an extravagant waste to raise cotton when two crops of potatoes a year can be grown on the same land at a better profit for each crop,” the newspaper stated. Edmunds reported having grown 300 bushels to the acre on seven acres at Fort Smith the year before. He reported his yield on the second crop at 200 bushels to the acre. While the potato-growing story and how Edmunds had gotten rich quick piqued our interest, we also were interested in an item a couple of columns over: That Fort Gibson, being located on the Grand River would be a great location for a paper mill. A civil engineer who talked about what a great location this would be proposed a dam with 40,000 hp be built on grand river. A dam had been proposed for the Grand River two years earlier by Henry Holderman. Holderman unsuccessfully tried time and again to have the project funded. His dream was brought to fruition when construction started in 1943. However, it was suspended because of World War II, and the dam was not completed until 1953. And, indeed a paper mill did finally locate in the area, but on the Arkansas River rather than the Grand. Fort Howard announced its Muskogee plant in 1975. While we’re still researching Fort Gibson’s potato mascot, we found local ties to Oklahoma State University’s mascot, Pistol Pete. Francis Eaton was 8 years old when he saw six men gun down his father in the late 1860s. 
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