Ada, a lynching, Happyland and U.S. Highway 666

Ada, Okla., Zip Code 74821 is in Pontotoc County, in South Central Oklahoma.

Around the turn of the 20th Century, Ada was a violent town, with as many as 38 murders reported in one year. After a while, people had had enough.

On April 19, 1909, a gathering of local citizens numbering 50 or 60 or 200 strung up two local ranchers, a middleman and a hired gun for the killing of former U.S. Marshal Allen Augustus Bobbitt. No one was ever charged in the hanging, so the four men must have needed killing.

http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/history/ada_lynching.html

Ada is about 74% white, 15% native American, 3.5% black, with the remaining population falling in several other federal-recognized ethnic/racial categories. Almost 15% of families and 21% of the total population live below the determined federal poverty line.

“About 2,000-3,000 residents speak the Chickasaw language.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada,_Oklahoma

My wife’s maternal grandmother was born in Chickasaw Nation, as were all Mrs. Raley’s brothers and sisters. My paternal grandfather’s older sister also was born in Chickasaw Nation.

Happyland, Okla., is a few miles east of Ada. According to http://newsok.com/happyland/article/878980/?page=2 thieves target Happyland signs; probably the same kind of people who steal U.S. Highway 666 signs. However …

“On May 31, 2003, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials approved a new number for the remaining segments of U.S. 666 in Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. At the request of State transportation officials, the route became U.S. 491, a spur of U.S. 191.

“This is the story of why it was numbered U.S. 666 in the first place.”

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/us666.cfm

The story is too long. But, it is at a government site, and maybe the writer was paid by the word.