COLLINGS CASTLE

I received E-Mail that said:

This is Collings Castle in Turner Falls, Oklahoma. It is now owned by the town of Davis, Oklahoma.

Later, I received E-Mail that said:

Ghostly pictures from Collings Castle! http://www.ghoststudy.com/mystery_oct00.html
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Later, I received E-Mail from Dirk Kozak that said:

There is a Look out spot on top of the mountain that you can view the castle and the falls from. I found out that Ellsworth Collings was the Dean of the college in Oklahoma. He also wrote a few books on Western Cowboy history. In fact he wrote a number one book that's still in print called "The 101 Ranch". I am working on a web page about it with lots of pics on it. I'm still working on the history of Ellsworth. He was a very short man. I am 6 ft. 1 in. and in the bedroom of the castle and the door ways, I had to duck just to get in. The living areas however, had plenty of head room. There are 3 living areas with fire places in the main castle. It has a sitting area that looks like a place of worship outside to the left of the main building, ( just to the left of the stairs).

The tower is cool but very narrow, I had to turn sideways just to walk up the stairs to go to the top. I am a slender tall man so this guy must have been about the size of my 13 year old. There are stairs and doors to every roof top. The building on the left on top of the stairs must have been the out house bath. You can't see it in the photos but on top of the stairs is another building that looks like the others that must have been a horse and buggy stable (remember 1930s). To the right of the castle there is another castle a little smaller than the one you see in the photo ( castle on the right not shown in photos). It would be my guess that this was a guest house for company or another family member.

I am going to go to the book store soon and look at the book 101 ranch in hopes it has some more info about the author on the back cover. I have taken pics of both inside and out and will return soon for more pics. I live about 3 hours from it. I hope this e-mail was not more info than you wanted, I was just really into this castle. It was all done by hand in 1930's.

Later, I received E-Mail that said:

My name is Robert. I was fortunate to have lived in this castle in the late '70's when my family purchased it. Yes .... it is actually two castles - One Large and the other (facing and to the right is a smaller one) - My mom and sister lived in the big one and I lived in the little one. Also above the large one is a path up to the top of the hill to what is a small stable area. The large castle is two or three levels ( can't remember off hand .... but the smaller one is a single level- )

This castle is in the Park of Turner Falls. The falls is waterfall from honeycreek - there are two smaller creeks that merge and finally to come together and after some distance ... become one and become a 77 ft. waterfall. The castle property is the closest property to the falls. There are other private properties in the park complex. Davis is the closest town - about 5-7 miles to the northeast of the falls.

Later, I received E-Mail that said:

I was recently on a camping trip to Turner Falls, OK and toured Collings Castle and wanted to find out more about the history and original design. I don't know how long ago you posted the picture but I wanted to tell you that I was really pleased to see it. It seems that there is very little to be found out there (on the web) regarding it, and to have your picture so clearly showing the pre-tourist damage was amazing! Thank you!! It is more beautiful in design than I had pictured in my mind.

I wasn't sure when the information you shared was obtained, but I have to agree with the comments of Dirk Kozak addressing how small (short) the rooms and narrow the staircases are - I am 5'4" and of average weight and also found it very 'tricky' to navigate through. I think that is what intrigued me the most. I had recently been to the House of Seven Gables in Salem, MA and educated on how size of rooms had to do more with expense of heating (fuel costs) than the actual size of the residents so in turn wondered if, in OK where the climate was completely different than MA, the situation was the same. Many of the rooms were vandalized so badly that it was difficult to determine where one started and another ended, or if you were outside w/out a roof anymore. Did this gentleman ever provide any more history? It appeared that he was still researching at the time of his e-mail to you. Likewise, I found the comment by Robert - to have lived in such quarters as recently as the 70's - to have caught me completely surprised. I wondered if there was more to his story, be it details or photos.

Later, I received E-Mail that said:

Yes, you can tour it - but, it's a self-paced very informal tour (no tour guide and VERY little information) Entrance to the park in Winter is $3.50 and $7.00 in the summer but that also includes Turner Falls. Turner Falls is in Davis, OK about 1 1/2 hours south of OKLA City and 1 1/2 hours north of Dallas/Ft Worth.

On 3-28-05, I received E-Mail that said:

I visited Turner Falls and looked at the Collings Castle. It has been covered inside by grafiti and vandalism. The city of Davis owns it and is not preserving it or any of its history at all. At this rate it won't last long.

What a wonderful building. It's too bad the government has control of it. They don't seem to care about this great old building.

On 7-15-05, I received E-Mail that said:

Here's a link to the pictures I took of Collings Castle on July 14, 2005. http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/m_krebbs/album?.dir=/dc1f&urlhint=actn,del%3as,8%3af,0

The graffiti is pretty bad, but the castle was open, and there was more open than I remembered there being open the last time I visited. I wasn't able to get up to the smaller castle above it, but we're planning a return trip in a few months.

I spoke to someone who works there, and they said that they are working on getting it repainted, the only problem is what color to use to cover the graffiti. There was one room that I'd never seen before that was carpeted and had florescent lighting on the ceiling.

On 10-11-06, I received E-Mail that said:

In his letter about the Collings Castle in Oklahoma he notes that the builder must of been very small because of the low ,narrow doorways and stairs. This was planned for defense as were many of the castles in Europe. imagine your self attacking and needing to go into a room with a very small entrance knowing that there was a defender waiting for you to come through the door doubled over.... as for the narrow hallways the attackers must proceed single file.

Back to "Castles of the United States"

Preliminary research for this page done by Phil Bilzor.
Second photo sent in by Jubalator.