The warm Oklahoma wind blew across the gravel parking lot at the rustic roadside dirt mall, located somewhere outside Okmulgee. Filled with a cadre of likeminded garbage pickers, trash humpers and deal makers that converge on this prime spot by the highway almost every weekend, it’s a place where used bargains are made on a regular basis on third-hand treasures that have lost much of their luster…welcome to Cottonwood Creek.
A series of lean-to sheds that are pieced together with various scores of wood, siding and whatever else is on the trash-pile that day, this breed of cash-only enthusiasts come out every Friday, Saturday and Sunday to offer lookie-loos and bargain-seekers alike the one needful thing they didn’t know they needed, often at a rock bottom price. From broken dolls to spare bike parts, anything that’s been decimated or decapitated has a new home here....