Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Duncan and Stephens County, Oklahoma
    Duncan and Stephens County, Oklahoma
    Duncan and Stephens County, Oklahoma
    Ebook150 pages29 minutes

    Duncan and Stephens County, Oklahoma

    By Chris Jefferies Ph.D. and "Pee Wee" Cary

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Including some of Oklahoma’s earliest and most productive oil fields, Duncan and Stephens County played a major role in the development of America’s oil industry. Through historic images, this book focuses on the two themes that emerge from the area’s past: first, the settlement, growth, and development of communities with strong, progressive pioneer heritage; and second, the discovery of oil in the late teens, and the development of a petroleum industry with a worldwide reach and impact.
    Using primarily the archives of the Stephens County Historical Museum, the authors selected photographs that illustrate the two themes of community and oil, and how they impact each other. Highlights include the growth and development of Duncan, Marlow, and Comanche; prosperity from the oil boom; the strong
    sense of community through the Depression; service in both World War I and World War II; renewed growth following World War II; and contemporary efforts to strengthen the communities.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateNov 15, 1999
    ISBN9781439610381
    Duncan and Stephens County, Oklahoma
    Author

    Chris Jefferies Ph.D.

    Chris Jefferies is currently the director of the On the Chisholm Trial Statue and Museum in Duncan, a board member of the Stephens County Historical Society and Museum, and the executive director of the On the Chisholm Trail Association. Pee Wee Cary is currently the curator at the Stephens County Historical Museum, a board member of the Stephens County Historical Museum, and a professional photographer. Proceeds from this book will directly benefit the Historical Society. Jefferies and Cary have created a pictorial retrospective that will be treasured in Duncan and Stephens County for years to come.

    Related to Duncan and Stephens County, Oklahoma

    Related ebooks

    United States History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      For More Than Fifty Years, Charles “Teenie” Harris Created A Vivid Record Of Black Life In Pittsburgh. Now, A Major Archival Project Stands To Reveal The Scope Of His Vision.

      Mar 7, 2023

      For More Than Fifty Years, Charles “Teenie” Harris Created A Vivid Record Of Black Life In Pittsburgh. Now, A Major Archival Project Stands To Reveal The Scope Of His Vision.
      7 min read

    • Article

      Beauty Is Truth

      Nov 1, 2021

      Beauty Is Truth
      4 min read

    • Article

      A Female Gaze

      Dec 1, 2021

      A Female Gaze
      4 min read

    • Article

      Gold Hill, Nevada

      May 23, 2023

      Gold Hill, Nevada
      3 min read

    • Article

      Seven Magic Mountains

      Mar 2, 2021

      Seven Magic Mountains
      2 min read

    • Article

      Blackbear Bosin

      Apr 19, 2022

      Blackbear Bosin
      5 min read

    • Article

      Philippe Halsman

      Jul 2, 2019

      Philippe Halsman
      2 min read

    • Article

      When Eden Rocked

      Jun 7, 2019

      When Eden Rocked
      11 min read

    • Article

      Jo Hopper, Woman in the Sun

      Feb 26, 2018

      Jo Hopper, Woman in the Sun
      10 min read

    • Article

      Notebook

      Feb 5, 2020

      Notebook
      6 min read

    • Article

      Will Sampson

      Dec 6, 2022

      In 1975, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. But for all the acclaim the film’s star, Jack Nicholson, received for the contrarian antics of R.P. McMurphy, and the career-defining performance of Louise Flet

      3 min read

    • Article

      Cuervo, New Mexico

      May 3, 2022

      Cuervo, New Mexico
      2 min read

    • Article

      Trending Now

      Jan 3, 2020

      Trending Now
      4 min read

    • Article

      Dave Stamey Bodie Ride

      Oct 19, 2021

      Dave Stamey Bodie Ride
      1 min read

    • Article

      The Wreck Of Bertrand

      May 3, 2022

      The Wreck Of Bertrand
      4 min read

    • Article

      Home Of The Alamo

      Dec 21, 2021

      Home Of The Alamo
      12 min read

    • Article

      Bandwidth

      Dec 31, 2019

      Bandwidth
      8 min read

    • Article

      Art Calendar

      Oct 17, 2023

      Art Calendar
      2 min read

    • Article

      Plein Air Painter

      Mar 4, 2021

      WHEN THE RUBY RANGE’s aspens turned gold last autumn, Shaun Horne was there, brush in hand. When severe winter storms heaped snow on the twelve-thousand-foot peaks, Shaun Horne was there, brush in hand. When spring’s long-awaited warmth triggered a h

      3 min read

    • Article

      Day Jobs

      Sep 7, 2021

      Day Jobs
      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Duncan and Stephens County, Oklahoma

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Duncan and Stephens County, Oklahoma - Chris Jefferies Ph.D.

      Commission.

      INTRODUCTION

      Oklahoma’s Great Plains country describes the grass-covered plains and rolling hills that cover Oklahoma’s southwest corner. Long the preserve of the nomadic plains Indians, it is the site of myriad currents of history that swirled across its surface and whose impacts are still felt today. Early explorers, trappers, nomadic Indian tribes, the U.S. Army and Cavalry, cowboys, desperados, and outlaws have all left their tracks. Its earliest non-Indian explorers were the Spanish, who established an outpost just 25 miles due south of today’s Stephens County on the Red River in the mid-1700s. They extended exploration and mining activities to the Wichita Mountains less than 30 miles due west of the county. The first eye-witness account of the region’s exploration was by a member of the 1834 Dodge-Leavenworth expedition, guided, not coincidentally, by Jesse Chisholm, for whom the Great Cattle Road running through the county was later named. Their route passed just south of present Duncan. This early account portrayed a bleak and uninviting region, shunned by all but its Native American inhabitants, and trappers and traders. Stephens County lies on the far eastern edge of these plains, adjacent to the Cross Timbers.

      The Cross Timbers is a geographic phenomenon that played a significant role in the development of the county. It describes a dense, almost impenetrable growth of Black Jack Oak and Post Oak timber that extends from north-central Texas northward to the center of Oklahoma. Only about 50 to 75 miles in width, it presented such an obstacle to early east-west travel that the trails and roads through the Cross Timbers converged in the few gaps that allowed passage. Thus, the Dodge-Leavenworth expedition, and the later Fort Arbuckle-Fort Belknap, and Fort Arbuckle-Fort Sill roads passed through the county. When the forceful removal of Native American tribes from the American southeast in 1837 led in 1855 to the creation of separate Indian nations in present-day Oklahoma, future Stephens County lay on the far western edge of the Chickasaw Nation’s Pickens County. Almost isolated from the rest of the Chickasaw Nation, the region was largely ignored by the Tribal government. This neglect led, in turn, to early, if mostly illegal, settlement by a few non-Indians.

      When Joseph McCoy sought to attract the large herds of cattle he hoped would be flowing north out of Texas after the Civil War to Abilene, Kansas, and his new stockyards, he sent posters and handbills south throughout Texas proclaiming a new, safer, and shorter route to the railheads. He hired surveyors to lay out a route, and they worked southward from Abilene to present-day Wichita, then south along Jesse Chisholm’s trade route to his post on the North Canadian river near present-day Yukon, Oklahoma. From there, they went largely due south on a route that took them through future Stephens County to the Red River, and a crossing north of present-day Nocona, Texas. Their route through Stephens County resulted from the surveyor’s efforts to stay close to the Cross Timbers and off the plains to the west, across which roamed the hostile Kiowas, Comanches, and Southern Cheyenne. McCoy’s enticements worked, and thus was born the Great Cattle Road, more commonly known as the Chisholm Trail, over which about 4 million cattle traveled from 1867 to the mid-1880s. Another 6 million cattle went up the Western Trail in far west Indian Territory.

      It was along the Chisholm Trail,

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1