THE HISTORY AND THE SOONER CORRAL GHOST< /p>

I had been at the Sooner Corral for about a year and had never heard the story of Griz our Ghost.  I was at the club one evening and looked around to see several people with video equipment running around.  I asked our security whom these people were. He told me Ghost Investigators, that was the first time that I had heard the story. A few weeks latter, I was hanging out at closing time.  We were getting ready to close the bar when Richard the owner set three beers on the bar, I asked Richard who are those beers for?  I hoped they were for me, like I needed any more beers.  Richard said that he was setting them out for Griz to keep him from misbehaving after we left.  I laughed and made fun of leaving beers for Griz.  Our female bar tender looked at me and informed me that this is no laughing matter.  She said that it is spooky when you are here by your self when some one turns the water on in the bath rooms and there are no customers. Our security man looked at me and said, "I have seen this Cecil, it is true." That was right after Ghouli did her investigation.  That was back in 2005 when Ghouli and a film crew from  Oklahoma City University showed up to investigate, Julie was working here at that time.

Thirty years ago when I was a young pup, we would get a six pack of beer and go driving around in the country out by the lake close to where Toby Keith lives now.  Back then the only businesses in that area was a few ma and pa stores that closed at 9:00PM.  When we would get lost we would start looking for some light to indicate that we were getting close to town.  The only bright lights were the Westerner Ballroom and the Diamond Ballroom.  When we saw those lights we knew that were getting close to town.  There are several stories as of the history of the Sooner Corral at one time it was known as the Westerneer Ballroom. Owned by Bill A. Mays and his wife. There is argument as to when the exact date it was built, but between 1948-1952 is when it was constructed. There is also debate as to whether or not an airplane hanger existed in the location before the Westerner. There are roomers of many famous customers through the years:  Al Capone liked to hang out at this location, however no historical evidence has yet to be found linking him to this location. It was mainly country and western entertainment, dancing, and beer, the likes of Elvis, Dolly Parton, Toby Keith, Johnny Cash, Conway Twitty, George Strait. In the old days they had what was known as the Rodeo Circuit, most of the Country and Western singer could not draw a big of enough crowd to file a large stadium like they can today. When the rodeos would come to town the promoters would book the singers at the larger clubs in the city.  Paula told me that there were a lot of pictures on the wall when she worked at the Westerner-Sooner Corral   The Westerner was featured in 3 movies and 7 television shows over the years. I never was in the club until Rusty in the early 90's turned the club into a strip club called the Silver Dollar Saloon. Things were rough around this time, drugs and crime were running rampant and the bar and it was also busted for Drugs. I never had any problems because I knew Rusty and bar tenders from other  clubs around town. After Rusty lost the  Silver Dollar it was an auction house for a while, then it was turned back to a club.  I was contacted at the end of 2004 by the Ronnie Price to add the Sooner Corral to my web site Partty.com.  I wound up building Richard his own web site the Sooner Corral an have been a part of the Sooner Corral ever since then.

Richard hasl reported of ghosts coming and going. Richard, the current owner, and his employees have nicknamed some of these spirits. He's also seen a full blown apparition go to flesh and blood. Gris is the name of the ghostly bouncer, who stands and watches over the bar. He can be
aggressive towards people who need attitude adjustments. Richard tells me of a story involving an employee. As it goes, the employee saw a very large man just standing in the mens restroom, never budging. The employee even hit the man, but he never moved. The employee left, frightened out of his mind! Richard also tells a story of his former partner who worked at the bar. Apparently his partner had gotten drunk and decided to sleep, so he started a fire in the fireplace and lined up a few chairs and slept on them. Richard meanwhile cleaned up and vacuumed and decided to leave for the night since his partner wasn't waking up. At some point the partner felt someone touch him right between the eyes and say "How dare you sleep in my house!" Needless to say, that sobered him up really quick!

Tammy is the manager of the Sooner Corral, she has spent time alone there. There are two upstairs areas, one is a private lounge on the West end, and one is the "Red Room" or office on the East end. She and another person stayed the night once in this red room, the other person got up to use the restroom and came back to lay down. As they laid there they both heard what can only be described as a man peeing into the toilet, then attempting to flush it. Tammy is also aware of Yosemite Sam
aka Taz by Richard. He gets his name because he's a cowboy, he wears spurs that can be heard when he walks across the dance floor. He also wears a wide brim hat, and has been known to wear a trench coat. He likes to hang around the bar area, and the storage room has to be neat the way he likes it or things will be thrown around. People have seen his shadow pass by the storage room many times. It is also rumored that the spirit of a little girl exists in the bar. A former employee's daughter had "played" with the little girl once. She doesn't seem to be as active as the others. The employees likes to leave out 2 to 3 beers for Sam and Gris, they have never gone 3 days without leaving beers otherwise the
ghosts will act out. Same goes for when they close for the night, the employee closing has to announce who's opening the next day. There are many spirits here according to employees, only two have names so far, there are also some very affectionate female spirits. In the upstairs lounge a woman has been heard crying. This has also been captured on EVP. The downstairs bathroom also has a woman, I have heard her whispering personally! Also just a list of the paranormal things that happen often: shadow walkers and apparitions can be seen out of the corner of your eye if you know what to look for, stuff falling, group of people talking upstairs, dartboards stay lit after turned off, bottle caps thrown on the floor, footsteps, etc. There are so many things going on at the Sooner Corral it would take a years to collect all the stories, and happenings here.

So be on the lookout for ghost when you come visit us

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