A shocking find on the summit of Ghost Mound
CADDO COUNTY, Okla. (KFOR) – Over the past 18 years, historian Art Peters has walked just about every foot of ground between Hinton, Oklahoma to the Texas border, the high ground on the prairie that formed the old California Trail, and the landmarks like Ghost Mound along the route.
“The tops of these mounds,” he points out, “are little, leftover snippets of what the entire terrain once was.”
Artifacts from dozens of excavated campsites fill tables at the Hinton Museum, but Peter’s continued fascination with this area knows no height.
Art explains, “The property owner allowed me to come out here. I just wanted to climb all the mounds I could to see what was up there.”
On a clear February morning we set out to summit Ghost Mound with paleontology student Buddy Raetz to further examine what Peters found embedded in the ancient limestone caprock.
Peters recalls, “He showed me one track that he’d discovered.”
The mound is only about 105 feet above the surrounding grassland, but climbing it is difficult, and proves impossible for all but the most nimble of our group.
By cell phone, Peters tells Raetz, “Point out those dinosaur tracks again.”
Fortunately, our Mr. Raetz summits with a small camera to point out what he agrees are dinosaur tracks in the prehistoric mud, made plainer by pouring water into the depressions.
Raetz directs our drone camera, “This one over here is the right foot of a Utahraptor. It’s pretty worn away. This one over here is a left footprint from a separate animal, still a Utahraptor.”
Peters is more historian that scientist.
“I’m just an amateur,” he states.
Raetz is still studying, but they both wonder at what they think might be human footprints on the summit too.
He continues, “It would take a geologist or paleontologist to identify or age them better than I could.”
Native American legends passed down through generations tell of a young woman who fell from the heights to her death, and whose spirit never left.
From history to pre-history, the footprints of traveling spirits who’ve come this way before are still visible if you know where to look.
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