Volume 3, Issue 2, page 3
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By ALPHIA HART
ONE WOLF, Oklahoma, is a typical small
town: One main business street, paved
through the beneficence of a state
highway that seeks these wayside excuses to slow through traffic. Like a short
fringe of raged scallops are a dozen or more
business buildings that apparently haven't
seen a clean-up, paint-up campaign since the
dust started blowing -- and that was a long time
ago, as many a weary housewife will tell you.
To the west and south, a sawtooth of jagged
granite breaks the horizon. "Mountains", they
call them, and by this term, the Wichita Mountains, they are accepted in a state so typically flat that even an anthill is a welcome
relief from scenic monotony. And here, on this
dusty Main Street, and within the setting-sun
shadows of these granite outcroppings, is a
visionary dream almost as fantastic as it is
idealistic:
"Uncle Ed's" City of Dawn -- a "holy city" in
which are to be united all the religions of
the earth. And if "Uncle Ed" has his way,
there won't be a preacher inside the gates,
unless one of these "blind leaders of the
blind" should get his "spirit eyes" open.
When you talk to Edward Milligan, now 67
years old, he will start the story back with
his Irish and Pawnee Indian ancestry, but the
story really started in 1:336 when, as an engineer, he was making a survey in these granite hills. An atmospheric disturbance of
blinding white light caused him to do some research, which was mixed up with a mysterious
"Hidden Voice" and his practical knowledge of
earthly elements. At any rate, he discovered a
subterranean river beneath the mountains, capable of supplying the needs of two large cities, with waters he suspects have curative
powers. Further investigation led him to believe that a city could be built in this area --
fashioned of native granite, and utilizing the
waters for healing and irrigation.
In the intervening years, Milligan has carried these ideas with him, mulling over them,
drawing up plans, adding details and visions
here and visions there, until three years ago
this August when he opened offices in Lone
Wolf with the idea of turning these dreams
of his into a reality and the stacks o#' paper
into something more usable and negotiable.
In the almost three years since "Uncle Ed"
moved to Lone Wolf, there is little tangible
evidence that his dreams have taken on any
material solidity. The "City of Dawn" is still
one of the "scallops" along the Main Street
which is the State highway through Lone Wolf.
The business building "Uncle rd" uses is almost frowning, with its Bon-Ami soaped windows
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Edward "Teach Me Thy Holy- Wisdom" Milligan
that hide the interior from the passer-by.
Back of the "office", over which reigns Dorothy Brand, his secretary, "Uncle Ed" batches,
sleeps, reads, plans, and discusses his dreams
TO any who will listen.
Milligan, himself, is a picturesque with his
character out of West melodrama,
white hair, white cropped mustache, and silvery chin whiskers. Former planning engineer,
and self-styled ex-broncho buster, cowboy, and
showman, you get the idea that it is more his
showmanship rather than his religion that is
spawning this "City of Dawn". One minute, he
will be telling you of the vast fortunes being
made and invested by the various religious
"businesses" of the world. Then he'll speak of
his "City of Dawn" and of the great tourist
attraction such a venture would mean for Oklahoma. And before you can pigeon-hole this information, his voice an d entire expression
change, and he begins to speak of his experiences"~ -- not of "religion" but his direct contact with his Creator -- and you know that he
speaks words of wisdom that are never uttered
from any pulpit to the cash customers on Sunday mornings. This ability to commune with the
Infinite, he says, partly can be traced to his
Pawnee ancestor, who was a great medicine man.
The "knowing" KNOW; the "religionist" merely
"BELIEVES" .
Some of the inventions which "The Voice" has
told him about and helped him design will provide the riches the 'City of Dawn" needs to