Junebug, Oklahoma

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This article describes a fictional place or event

Junebug is a fictional town in southwest Oklahoma created by author Larry Mike Garmon and the setting for many of his short stories and novels.

Junebug is the county seat of Bugg County. The zip code for Junebug, Oklahoma is 74666.

Geographically, Junebug is in the center of the "smallest county in Oklahoma", Bugg County (200 m²), and is bounded by natural borders on all four sides: the Red River on the south; an outcrop of granite mountains on the east that run from the Red River twenty miles northward; the North Folk of the Red River on the north, which runs ten miles; a tributary of the North Folk of the Red River is Buttermilk Creek , which serves as the western boundary. Buttermilk Creek runs twenty miles south and empties into the Red River.

The granite mountains that serve as the eastern boundary are called the Glass Mountains. On the east side of the mountains is Jackson County, Oklahoma whose county seat is Altus, Oklahoma. Across Buttermilk Creek Bridge one enters Harmon County, Oklahoma, whose county seat is Hollis, Oklahoma. These are real counties and towns.

The following short "history" has been provided by Chadwick Chapman, the fictional editor of The Junebug Journal:

Founded in 1891 by Josiah Bugg, some say Junebug was named after Josiah's wife, June, while others claim it was so named because of the millions of junebugs that infest the area from May through the middle of June each year. Upon Oklahoma's statehood in 1907, a 200 square mile area was christened Bugg County, being formed by natural boundaries: a twenty-mile outcrop of granite mountains on the east, the North Folk of the Red River on the north, Buttermilk River on the west, and, finally, the Red River on the south.

Although local written history has no record of it, legend says that Josiah got the land that would one day be the City of Junebug and Bugg County when he killed a Cheyenne shaman who had claim to the land. Coincidentally, when the shaman was found hanging from an old cottonwood tree with a block printed suicide note pinned to his leather vest, Josiah produced a will leaving him and him alone the 200 square miles. At the time, no one questioned the fact that the Cheyenne shaman neither spoke nor wrote English. Also, a recent historical exhumation of the shaman's grave and the subsequent autopsy have revealed a small caliber bullet hole at the base of the man's skull. Some have joked that the old Cheyenne was quite the shaman indeed to have shot himself at the base of his skull and then hang himself.

Since its questionable founding, Junebug has experienced a series of unusual, strange, and horrific events.

Although Josiah Bugg became one of the wealthiest men in Oklahoma, and the wealthiest in Bugg County, no doubt, within fifty years, the Bugg Family had died out. Some say it was just time for the line to die out; others claim it was the spirit of the dead Cheyenne shaman who had cursed the family as several of the Buggs died under mysterious and somewhat bizarre circumstances. For example, Josiah's eldest son, Ephraim, was found dead in the Bugg backyard at the age of twelve. The cause of death listed on the autopsy was drowning, which wouldn't have been so strange except given the fact that the Buggs didn't own a swimming pool, the Bugg water-well was actually in the basement of the house, and Ephraim's body and clothing were as dry as desert-bleached bones. June Bugg claims that her son had just gone outside ten minutes before a hired hand had found the boy, water spewing from his mouth, nostrils, and ears.

Junebug is famous for four things: the world-famous horror writer Edwin Dark; the annual Junebug Chocolate and Rattlesnake Festival; being the smallest county in Oklahoma; and the unusual, strange, and horrific events that have taken place over the past one-hundred years.

People who have lived in Junebug, and those who have only visited there, believe that when they die they will go to Heaven because they have already been to Hell in a town called Junebug, Oklahoma.

Chad Chapman,

Editor, The Junebug Journal

Junebug, Oklahoma