OK Ghost Towns

While doing a little bit of research recently, I discovered that the Texola Post Office closed on 09/05/2009. That is really not that surprising. Texola has been a community in decline for some time now. It is considered a ghost town since the business district is completely in ruins and only a handful of residence remain.

I will try and make a trip to this border town with Texas and grab a few pictures. I have a few from a couple of years ago, but it will take me a while to locate them. Time for some new ones.

I found a link on the USPS site that list post offices for Washita County. While I do not think this is a complete list of every post office ever established in Washita County, it is still good to have the dates it does give.

Bessie – established 05/16/1895
Burns Flat – no dates given
Canute – est. 02/24/1899
Colony – est. 01/08/1896
Cordell – est. 10/12/1892
Corn – est. 04/27/1896
Dill City – no dates given
Foss – est. 09/15/1900
Herald – est. 11/30/1898 dis. 06/14/1902
Retrop – est. 01/12/1900 dis. 02/28/1905
Rocky – est. 07/12/1898
Sentinel – est. 10/13/1899

It looks as if I have my work cut out for me in researching Washita County alone. I was reading a book description about Washita County and it list that there are 44 ghost towns alone in the county.

From the book Washita County (OK) (Images of America):

Created from part of the Cheyenne-Arapaho Indian reservation, 1,008 square miles of rich agricultural land became home to over 5,000 homesteaders with a run at high noon on April 19, 1892. The county has a rich heritage as about 55 communities and over 100 school districts were established during the first 10 years. As Oklahoma was a territory at the time, only Congress could establish a county seat, and it named Cloud Chief, with a population of about 20 or 30, as the county seat. According to history, Cloud Chief, located in the southeast corner of the county, had several businesses established by midafternoon and a population of over 3,000 that first night. In 1900, the people of Washita County, by a vote of 1,349 in favor to 282 in opposition, illegally moved the courthouse under gunfire to Cordell, which was located in the exact center of the county. Today Washita County has 44 ghost towns, which had a post office or a community store that no longer exist.

I knew of about 10 or so towns that are considered ghost towns in the county. Now to find out about the other 34.

Went out with a friend exploring the past of Kiowa County, Oklahoma yesterday. Our first stop was at the Gold Belle Mine. That mine began operating around 1900 to produce gold ore from the nearby towns of Cold Springs and Wildman. Both of which are now ghost towns. Nothing remains of either.

The concrete foundations are all that remain of the old mine. You can also see the entrance to one of the old mine shafts. It is sealed up 20 feet into the shaft with concrete to keep people from exploring the old mine. Something I am sure would be extremely dangerous if it were possible. Also still in place is the old cooling tank at the top of the hill. You can climb to the top of it pretty easily, but you will find about a 20 foot deep tank with a lot of trash and broken glass in the bottom of it and no way out if you were to fall in. There is a nice view from the top though.

Finding the mine was actually pretty simple. We drove right to it without any problems. Headed down US183 past Roosevelt and turned right onto County Rd. N2250 and went about a quarter mile and turned right again. There it was right in front of us. If you are ever near the area, it might be a fun stop for a few pictures.

I have been looking for some information on ghost towns that exists in Mayes County in Northeastern Oklahoma.  I haven’t found any in publications I have been looking at.  Surely this can’t be.  There is bound to be at least one town in Mayes County that no longer exists.  I will even take a mining camp, just to have some information on the historical record of this county.

If you know of anything or have anything, please share!

• Foss historical marker 1 http://twitpic.com/w9exy 15:54:15
• Foss historical marker 2 http://twitpic.com/w9f8n 15:56:02
• Foss historical marker 3 http://twitpic.com/w9fen 15:57:18
• Foss historical marker 4 http://twitpic.com/w9fma 15:59:02
• Foss historical marker 4 http://twitpic.com/w9ft2 15:59:28
• Foss historical marker http://twitpic.com/w9fzx 16:00:39
• http://bit.ly/5GvuXO
  Foss historical marker location 16:01:25
• 35.457275, -99.168831 just in case the link is no good 16:03:01
• Remains of Foss business district http://twitpic.com/w9gwm 16:06:02
• Kobels Place – Foss OK http://twitpic.com/w9heq 16:09:09
• @programwith Foss historical marker http://twitpic.com/w9fzx (via @okghosttowns) – Found a new marker. Check twitter feed for more info. 16:39:38
• @programwitch Foss historical marker http://twitpic.com/w9fzx (via @okghosttowns) – Found a new marker. Check twitter feed for more info. 19:18:08

If you have an iPhone or other mobile device, there is now a theme setup just for you. No special URL needed to access it. At least not on the iPhone. It will auto detect your browser and format your screen for the correct settings. This is only for the blog right now. I may enable the mobile browser settings for the wiki at a later time.

Enjoy!

• New post: Tweets for 2009-12-22 ( http://okghosttowns.us/?p=81 ) 10:06:27

• New post: Tweets for 2009-12-21 ( http://okghosttowns.us/?p=80 ) 10:10:21