Myna Potts
Encyclopedia
Myna Gayle Hicks Potts is an historical preservationist
from Chillicothe
in Hardeman County
in West Texas
who is the curator
of the Medicine Mound Museum
in the nearby ghost town
of Medicine Mound
. Only two buildings remain in the town. Medicine Mound has received non-profit status
and has been placed in the domain of the newly-established Downtown Medicine Mound Preservation Group, a 501(c)(3) public charity.
hills known as Medicine Mounds, which are considered sacred by the Comanche
and Kiowa
Indians
who believe that the landmarks contain mystical spirits to improve the quality of their lives. The mounds are on private property
and not available for public tours beyond an outer five-mile limit. One can see for approximately fifty miles from the top of the mounds.
John A. Bates of Ferndale
in Oakland County
, Michigan
, near Detroit
, the former executive director of the Downtown Medicine Mound Preservation Group and a cousin
of Myna Potts, recalls having visited the ghost town when he was a boy: "The Comanche would come to the Medicine Mounds for their healing powers, often trading flint
and other goods and racing their ponies around the mound below us. . . . We carefully descended about seventy-five feet or so to an almost imperceptible track that circled the entire mound, which was used by Quanah Parker
's braves to test their horsemanship. [In 1966], this 'track' was still quite visible, especially for a young man with a fertile imagination. Sadly, it is slowly disappearing as the young cedar
trees begin to reclaim the ground."
The four mounds, which range in elevation from two hundred to five hundred feet, were Comanche campsites and ceremonial grounds. The mounds had abundant spring water which encouraged hunting
, the gathering of medicinal
plants, and for worship. The Comanche Nation still considers two of these mounds to be sacred: the tallest, Medicine Mound, and the second tallest, Cedar Mound. The Indians return to these sites to gather plants and herbs and to seek spiritual guidance.
, an unincorporated
community in Montague County
northwest of Denton
. The Pottses moved west of Wichita Falls
to Medicine Mound in Hardeman County when Myna was still an infant
. Ira Hicks and his brother-in-law, Lon Cobb (died 1942), operated the Hicks-Cobb General Store, since the museum which Potts oversees as the major focus of her historical preservation efforts.
Potts attended elementary school
in Medicine Mound and graduated from Quanah High School in Quanah
, the seat of Hardeman County, named for the Comanche chief Quanah Parker. She attended Texas Tech University
in Lubbock
for one year. Potts was married to John Luther Potts, Jr. (1922-2011), who retired from the Lykes Shipping Company of New Orleans. As a skipper in the merchant marine, he was away from home in Chillicothe six months at a time, a situation which led Mrs. Potts to master the ham radio to maintain communication with her husband. The couple had one son, David Lee Potts (born January 12, 1947).
, Medicine Mound in its heyday had the W.W. Cole Building, a combination bank
, drugstore
, gasoline station (with rusty pumps remaining), and post office
, a laundry
(specifically, New York Steam Laundry), a school
, and a church. U.S. Highway 287 bypassed Medicine Mound in the late 1920s, and the community slowly declined in population
. The ghost town is located at the junction of Texas Farm or Ranch Roads 91 and 1167, which can be reached from U.S. 287 southward at Chillicothe or several miles further west of Chillicothe. It is southeast of the county seat
of Quanah.
Cotton
was grown about Medicine Mound, and times were generally prosperous until the Great Depression
. A fire
swept through Medicine Mound in 1933, but the community rebuilt. Though the original town buildings were wooden, solid granite
round rocks were placed on the revised structures—the stone is really prehistoric gravel and was brought from the Wichita Mountains
of Oklahoma
,
The population steadily declined from some five hundred to nothing, meaning a ghost town, though the 2000 census
placed the count at fifty, most living away from the town itself. When Hicks-Cobb closed in 1966, the town died. There are four Texas Historical Commission
markers outside the old store dedicated to (1) the community of Medicine Mound, (2) the Hicks-Cobb store, turned into a museum by Potts, (3) a Works Progress Administration
sanitation
project from the 1930s, and (4) a pioneer cemetery south of Medicine Mound, which is believed to have a total of nine graves.
On April 5, 2008, Potts addressed the West Texas Historical Association
annual meeting in Canyon
south of Amarillo
on her historical preservation work and her attempt to highlight the contributions of rural Americans.
in his Texas Country Reporter
syndicated television series that Medicine Mound "was rural
America, and it was complete. We had everything we needed right here. . . . I want the people remembered who settled the area. . . . [This place] has meaning; they had a place in history."
Phillips narrated his observations as follows: [Potts] is one woman determined to keep this town's history together. . . . We found Medicine Mound on Highway 1167 far from anything but the hills that the native Comanche held sacred, the mounds that give this place its name. Once we were here, we felt close to those who built the community, and the past didn't seem so far away."
s of early pioneers as well as old bottles, store fixtures, and a variety of items once sold in the mercantile, such as hats. Potts began assembling the pictures when she worked with western
author
Bill Neal, who wrote on a book on the region, Our Stories, Legends of the Mounds.
Museum hours are usually 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday but also by appointment with Myna Potts from her Chillicothe telephone number, 940-852-5288. In many ways, Medicine Mound Museum is Potts' "personal museum", the story of her own life. There is a highway rest stop on U.S. 287 to assist travelers desiring to detour to Medicine Mound to see the four mounds, the historical museum, and the ghost town.
Photographer Joe Miller recommends a visit to Medicine Mound for those who like solitude: "Potts is a gracious hostess and the place is certainly worth a visit. I love places like Medicine Mound because I hate crowds -- especially when I'm trying to do photography. I set up my heavy tripod
in the middle of the street knowing that there probably wouldn't be any traffic and, if someone did come along they would most likely pull around me and wave like they do when you meet them on the highway. There's not a lot of road rage
in Medicine Mound."
Preservationist
Preservationist is generally understood to mean historic preservationist: one who advocates to preserve architecturally or historically significant buildings, structures, objects or sites from demolition or degradation...
from Chillicothe
Chillicothe, Texas
Chillicothe is a city in Hardeman County, Texas, United States. The population was 798 at the 2000 census.The historical preservationist Myna Potts resides in Chillicothe...
in Hardeman County
Hardeman County, Texas
As of the census of 2000, there were 4,724 people, 1,943 households, and 1,319 families residing in the county. The population density was 7 people per square mile . There were 2,358 housing units at an average density of 3 per square mile...
in West Texas
West Texas
West Texas is a vernacular term applied to a region in the southwestern quadrant of the United States that primarily encompasses the arid and semi-arid lands in the western portion of the state of Texas....
who is the curator
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
of the Medicine Mound Museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
in the nearby ghost town
Ghost town
A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...
of Medicine Mound
Medicine Mound, Texas
Medicine Mound is a ghost town in southeastern Hardeman County in West Texas. It consists of two buildings, the former Hicks-Cobb general store and the W.W. Cole Building, a combination bank, drugstore, gasoline station , and post office...
. Only two buildings remain in the town. Medicine Mound has received non-profit status
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
and has been placed in the domain of the newly-established Downtown Medicine Mound Preservation Group, a 501(c)(3) public charity.
Medicine Mounds
Medicine Mound is near four dolomiteDolomite
Dolomite is a carbonate mineral composed of calcium magnesium carbonate CaMg2. The term is also used to describe the sedimentary carbonate rock dolostone....
hills known as Medicine Mounds, which are considered sacred by the Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
and Kiowa
Kiowa
The Kiowa are a nation of American Indians and indigenous people of the Great Plains. They migrated from the northern plains to the southern plains in the late 17th century. In 1867, the Kiowa moved to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma...
Indians
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
who believe that the landmarks contain mystical spirits to improve the quality of their lives. The mounds are on private property
Private property
Private property is the right of persons and firms to obtain, own, control, employ, dispose of, and bequeath land, capital, and other forms of property. Private property is distinguishable from public property, which refers to assets owned by a state, community or government rather than by...
and not available for public tours beyond an outer five-mile limit. One can see for approximately fifty miles from the top of the mounds.
John A. Bates of Ferndale
Ferndale, Michigan
Ferndale is adjacent to the cities of Detroit to the south, Oak Park to the west, Hazel Park to the east, Pleasant Ridge to the north, Royal Oak Township to the southwest, and Royal Oak to the north....
in Oakland County
Oakland County, Michigan
-Demographics:As of the 2010 Census, there were 1,202,362 people, 471,115 households, and 315,175 families residing in the county. The population density as of the 2000 census was 1,369 people per square mile . There were 492,006 housing units at an average density of 564 per square mile...
, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, near Detroit
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
, the former executive director of the Downtown Medicine Mound Preservation Group and a cousin
Cousin
In kinship terminology, a cousin is a relative with whom one shares one or more common ancestors. The term is rarely used when referring to a relative in one's immediate family where there is a more specific term . The term "blood relative" can be used synonymously and establishes the existence of...
of Myna Potts, recalls having visited the ghost town when he was a boy: "The Comanche would come to the Medicine Mounds for their healing powers, often trading flint
Flint
Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...
and other goods and racing their ponies around the mound below us. . . . We carefully descended about seventy-five feet or so to an almost imperceptible track that circled the entire mound, which was used by Quanah Parker
Quanah Parker
Quanah Parker was a Comanche chief, a leader in the Native American Church, and the last leader of the powerful Quahadi band before they surrendered their battle of the Great Plains and went to a reservation in Indian Territory...
's braves to test their horsemanship. [In 1966], this 'track' was still quite visible, especially for a young man with a fertile imagination. Sadly, it is slowly disappearing as the young cedar
Cedar wood
Cedar wood comes from several different trees that grow in different parts of the world, and may have different uses.* California incense-cedar, from Calocedrus decurrens, is the primary type of wood used for making pencils...
trees begin to reclaim the ground."
The four mounds, which range in elevation from two hundred to five hundred feet, were Comanche campsites and ceremonial grounds. The mounds had abundant spring water which encouraged hunting
Hunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
, the gathering of medicinal
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
plants, and for worship. The Comanche Nation still considers two of these mounds to be sacred: the tallest, Medicine Mound, and the second tallest, Cedar Mound. The Indians return to these sites to gather plants and herbs and to seek spiritual guidance.
Early years and family
Potts was the only daughter of five children of Ira Lee Hicks (1886–1966) and the former Lillie Bell Holmes (1892–1989), who are buried in Chillicothe. She was born in BonitaBonita, Texas
Bonita is an unincorporated community in north central Montague County, Texas, United States north of U.S. Route 82 on Farm to Market Road 1815.The West Texas historical preservationist Myna Potts was born in Bonita in 1927.-History:...
, an unincorporated
Unincorporated area
In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...
community in Montague County
Montague County, Texas
As of the census of 2000, there were 19,117 people, 7,770 households, and 5,485 families residing in the county. The population density was 20 people per square mile . There were 9,862 housing units at an average density of 11 per square mile...
northwest of Denton
Denton, Texas
The city of Denton is the county seat of Denton County, Texas in the United States. Its population was 119,454 according to the 2010 U.S. Census, making it the eleventh largest city in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex...
. The Pottses moved west of Wichita Falls
Wichita Falls, Texas
Wichita Falls is a city in and the county seat of Wichita County, Texas, United States, United States. Wichita Falls is the principal city of the Wichita Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Archer, Clay and Wichita counties. According to the U.S. Census estimate of 2010,...
to Medicine Mound in Hardeman County when Myna was still an infant
Infant
A newborn or baby is the very young offspring of a human or other mammal. A newborn is an infant who is within hours, days, or up to a few weeks from birth. In medical contexts, newborn or neonate refers to an infant in the first 28 days after birth...
. Ira Hicks and his brother-in-law, Lon Cobb (died 1942), operated the Hicks-Cobb General Store, since the museum which Potts oversees as the major focus of her historical preservation efforts.
Potts attended elementary school
Elementary school
An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...
in Medicine Mound and graduated from Quanah High School in Quanah
Quanah, Texas
Quanah is a city in and the county seat of Hardeman County, Texas, United States, northwest of Fort Worth, and a few miles from the Oklahoma-Texas state line...
, the seat of Hardeman County, named for the Comanche chief Quanah Parker. She attended Texas Tech University
Texas Tech University
Texas Tech University, often referred to as Texas Tech or TTU, is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas, United States. Established on February 10, 1923, and originally known as Texas Technological College, it is the leading institution of the Texas Tech University System and has the...
in Lubbock
Lubbock, Texas
Lubbock is a city in and the county seat of Lubbock County, Texas, United States. The city is located in the northwestern part of the state, a region known historically as the Llano Estacado, and the home of Texas Tech University and Lubbock Christian University...
for one year. Potts was married to John Luther Potts, Jr. (1922-2011), who retired from the Lykes Shipping Company of New Orleans. As a skipper in the merchant marine, he was away from home in Chillicothe six months at a time, a situation which led Mrs. Potts to master the ham radio to maintain communication with her husband. The couple had one son, David Lee Potts (born January 12, 1947).
Historic preservation
Potts grew up in the store, which she still describes as her "playhouse". In addition to the Hicks-Cobb General StoreGeneral store
A general store, general merchandise store, or village shop is a rural or small town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, sometimes in a small space, where people from the town and surrounding rural areas come to purchase all their general...
, Medicine Mound in its heyday had the W.W. Cole Building, a combination bank
Bank
A bank is a financial institution that serves as a financial intermediary. The term "bank" may refer to one of several related types of entities:...
, drugstore
Pharmacy
Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...
, gasoline station (with rusty pumps remaining), and post office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
, a laundry
Laundry
Laundry is a noun that refers to the act of washing clothing and linens, the place where that washing is done, and/or that which needs to be, is being, or has been laundered...
(specifically, New York Steam Laundry), a school
School
A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
, and a church. U.S. Highway 287 bypassed Medicine Mound in the late 1920s, and the community slowly declined in population
Population
A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...
. The ghost town is located at the junction of Texas Farm or Ranch Roads 91 and 1167, which can be reached from U.S. 287 southward at Chillicothe or several miles further west of Chillicothe. It is southeast of the county seat
County seat
A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....
of Quanah.
Cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
was grown about Medicine Mound, and times were generally prosperous until the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. A fire
Fire
Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. Slower oxidative processes like rusting or digestion are not included by this definition....
swept through Medicine Mound in 1933, but the community rebuilt. Though the original town buildings were wooden, solid granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
round rocks were placed on the revised structures—the stone is really prehistoric gravel and was brought from the Wichita Mountains
Wichita Mountains
The Wichita Mountains are located in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The mountains are a northwest-southeast trending series of rocky promontories, many capped by 540 million-year old granite. These were exposed and rounded by weathering during the Permian Period...
of Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
,
The population steadily declined from some five hundred to nothing, meaning a ghost town, though the 2000 census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
placed the count at fifty, most living away from the town itself. When Hicks-Cobb closed in 1966, the town died. There are four Texas Historical Commission
Texas Historical Commission
The Texas Historical Commission is an agency dedicated to historic preservation within the state of Texas. It administers the National Register of Historic Places for sites in Texas....
markers outside the old store dedicated to (1) the community of Medicine Mound, (2) the Hicks-Cobb store, turned into a museum by Potts, (3) a Works Progress Administration
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
sanitation
Sanitation
Sanitation is the hygienic means of promoting health through prevention of human contact with the hazards of wastes. Hazards can be either physical, microbiological, biological or chemical agents of disease. Wastes that can cause health problems are human and animal feces, solid wastes, domestic...
project from the 1930s, and (4) a pioneer cemetery south of Medicine Mound, which is believed to have a total of nine graves.
On April 5, 2008, Potts addressed the West Texas Historical Association
West Texas Historical Association
The West Texas Historical Association is an organization of both academics and laypersons dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of the total history of West Texas, defined geographically as all Texas counties and portions of counties located west of Interstate 35.-Formation of the...
annual meeting in Canyon
Canyon, Texas
Canyon is a city in Randall County, Texas, United States. The population was 12,875 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Randall County. It is the home of West Texas A&M University and Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum. Palo Duro Canyon State Park is some twelve miles east of Canyon...
south of Amarillo
Amarillo, Texas
Amarillo is the 14th-largest city, by population, in the state of Texas, the largest in the Texas Panhandle, and the seat of Potter County. A portion of the city extends into Randall County. The population was 190,695 at the 2010 census...
on her historical preservation work and her attempt to highlight the contributions of rural Americans.
Texas Country Reporter
In 2007, Potts told Bob PhillipsBob Phillips
Robert Leon Phillips, known as Bob Phillips , is an American television journalist best known for his long-running program Texas Country Reporter...
in his Texas Country Reporter
Texas Country Reporter
Texas Country Reporter is a weekly syndicated television program hosted and produced by Bob Phillips. It airs in all 22 Texas media markets, generally on weekends, and reruns are broadcast nationally on the satellite/cable channel RFD-TV...
syndicated television series that Medicine Mound "was rural
Rural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
America, and it was complete. We had everything we needed right here. . . . I want the people remembered who settled the area. . . . [This place] has meaning; they had a place in history."
Phillips narrated his observations as follows: [Potts] is one woman determined to keep this town's history together. . . . We found Medicine Mound on Highway 1167 far from anything but the hills that the native Comanche held sacred, the mounds that give this place its name. Once we were here, we felt close to those who built the community, and the past didn't seem so far away."
Museum access
The museum is particularly known for its extensive collection of hundreds of photographPhotograph
A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...
s of early pioneers as well as old bottles, store fixtures, and a variety of items once sold in the mercantile, such as hats. Potts began assembling the pictures when she worked with western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
Bill Neal, who wrote on a book on the region, Our Stories, Legends of the Mounds.
Museum hours are usually 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday but also by appointment with Myna Potts from her Chillicothe telephone number, 940-852-5288. In many ways, Medicine Mound Museum is Potts' "personal museum", the story of her own life. There is a highway rest stop on U.S. 287 to assist travelers desiring to detour to Medicine Mound to see the four mounds, the historical museum, and the ghost town.
Photographer Joe Miller recommends a visit to Medicine Mound for those who like solitude: "Potts is a gracious hostess and the place is certainly worth a visit. I love places like Medicine Mound because I hate crowds -- especially when I'm trying to do photography. I set up my heavy tripod
Tripod
A tripod is a portable three-legged frame, used as a platform for supporting the weight and maintaining the stability of some other object. The word comes from the Greek tripous, meaning "three feet". A tripod provides stability against downward forces, horizontal forces and moments about the...
in the middle of the street knowing that there probably wouldn't be any traffic and, if someone did come along they would most likely pull around me and wave like they do when you meet them on the highway. There's not a lot of road rage
Road rage
Road rage is an aggressive or angry behavior by a driver of an automobile or other motor vehicle. Such behavior might include rude gestures, verbal insults, deliberately driving in an unsafe or threatening manner, or making threats. Road rage can lead to altercations, assaults, and collisions...
in Medicine Mound."