The Toll Bridge and Fords · Crossing Elk Creek

The Toll Bridge and Fords · Crossing Elk Creek . Honey Springs Battlefield. Elk Creek is normally shallow enough to wade across, but can flood over its banks following even moderate rains. Wagons pulled by mule teams or oxen often forded the creek by going down the steep banks east or west of the bridge at the low- water crossings. Cannon and army supply wagons found it easier to cross using the bridge. Travelers often rested at a way-stop on either side of Elk Creek. Shaw's Inn was on the Texas Road about one and one-half miles north of the creek, and the village of Honey Springs was the same distance to the south. In 1884 William McIntosh rebuilt the bridge with stone piers. The bridge washed out in 1889 but was not rebuilt until 1912. , William F. McIntosh, built and operated the old toll bridge on Elk Creek which was located one and one-half miles north of Honey Springs on the old Kansas-Texas trail. This bridge was operated for a number of years and discontinued about 1889. The old trail crossed Spring Creek at Honey Springs which was a noted camping ground and watering place in the early days. , W.P.A. Writers' Project Interview with Thomas McIntosh , (Indian and Pioneer Papers, Oklahoma Historical Society), I remember when William McIntosh operated the toll bridge across Elk Creek on the Texas Trail. It was a well-constructed bridge, all of wood, built before the Civil War. In 1884 McIntosh rebuilt the bridge and replaced the bents with stone piers. A stone mason by the name of McDurmit built the piers and they remain there today as a ghostly monument to those old pioneers. , W.P.A. Writers' Project Interview with John W. Grayson , (Indian and Pioneer Papers, Oklahoma Historical Society)