Finally, on July 20, 1907, shortly before statehood, the Busch Post Office had its name officially changed to Elk City Post Office. Consequently, on many early maps of Oklahoma Territory the names of " Crowe" or " Busch" are seen instead of " Elk City".
Even though the town of Elk City has had only one name, its early settlers were served by a post office named Crowe, and later, one named Busch. I am informed by our guide that five years since, elk were frequently seen in the Wichita Mountains but now they are seldom met with in this part of the country." Confusion also stems from the early post offices that served the residents of the town. On May 31, in the official journal of the expedition, Marcy wrote about the productive soil, the dense grass, and the vertical red clay banks of a "bold running stream of good water." Continuing, he wrote, "From the circumstance of having seen elk tracks upon the stream we passed in our march today, I have called it 'Elk Creek'. Marcy and his troops had left the Wichita Mountains and the waterway which he named Otter Creek during his exploration, and they were traveling northwest along the North Fork of the Red River. Marcy who was leading an expedition to explore the Red River in 1852. Elk City was so named because it is located at the head of Elk Creek, which in turn was named by U.S. There is some confusion about how Elk City got its name. On that day, the townsite company sold $32,000 worth of property (about $870,000 in 2012 dollars) and continued doing a good business for some time thereafter. By this time, hundreds of prospective purchasers had built a tent city. Probably the most important day in Elk City's history is March 20, 1901, the date the first lots were sold by the Choctaw Townsite and Development Company. These men with great foresight determined that the area at the source of Elk Creek would be an ideal location for a town, so they came to the area to purchase lands from the homesteaders who had claims along the railroad. They formed the Choctaw Townsite and Development Company. The creation of Elk City was an idea conceived by land promoters from Weatherford, Oklahoma, when they learned that the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad (CO & G) was coming to the area (in 1898, the CO & G Railroad completed its western route to Weatherford beginning in 1901, it continued building west). Prior to this time, many early ranchers had driven cattle over the Great Western Cattle Trail from Texas to Dodge City, Kansas, the present townsite of Elk City being in the direct path of that famous trail. Founding to statehood Įlk City's history dates back to the days immediately following the opening of the Cheyenne-Arapaho reservation in western Oklahoma Territory on April 19, 1892, when the first white settlers made their appearance. Because Coronado's route across the plains is speculative, it is quite possible that the expedition passed through present-day Elk City or the nearby area. The Spanish conquistador was traveling northeast across the prairie in search of a place called Quivira, a city said to be fabulously wealthy with gold. In 1541, Francisco Vásquez de Coronado became the first known European to pass through the area. Coronado Sets Out to the North, by Frederic Remington, 1861–1909
0 kommentar(er)
