Hargrove started a post office at the new town site. Sam Bradfield and his son-in-law, Adam Holden, came from Bluejacket the same year and built a livery barn. Mont McGee came from Edna, Kansas, and started a grocery store, while the Mowry Hardware was started by another Edna man and managed by Bob Allen. A little later Henry Hyman opened a grocery store and Joe Lehman started a grocery, as did Messrs. Shinn and Rogers.

The first house built in town was a block north of the park, and Adam Holden’s house was built across the street in 1899.

The old Coffeyville, Kansas, to Vinita road was located about two miles northeast of Centralia. That road angled southeast across the flat prairie land. Plans called for a railroad to be built from Vinita to Centralia to Coffeyville, to be called the “Vinita and Western”. It was staked out and part of the grade built about nine miles northwest of Vinita as far as Woodley. 1906 and 1907 maps showed the line which was never completed.

The town’s height of prosperity was 1907-1915. By the latter year, it had grown in size to 750 people. There were two banks: the Farmers & Merchants headed by Frank Conkright, and the First State Bank which had originally been organized by the T.R. Montgomery family as a national bank. People who were associated with the banks in Centralia other than the above mentioned included Fred Hartley who went to a Grove bank, Bill Reynolds who later was an officer in the Vinita First National Bank, Howard Nix who was president of Vinita Production Credit Association for many years, Caney Spence who later became a Craig County official. By 1930, both Centralia banks had closed.

Over a period of prosperous years, businesses in Centralia included grocery stores operated by Henry Hyman, Joe Lehman, George B. Parks, J.F. McCoy, Everett Christian, and J.F. Clawson. There were Ben Pennington’s and Comstock’s Groceries across the street south of the park and Mrs. May’s grocery west of the park. Livery stables were operated by Sam Bradfield, Adam Holden, J.H. Hargrove, and Frank Nix. Blacksmiths included John Mowry, Mr. Haskett, and Mr. Jackson. Other businesses during the prosperous years included John Rich’s General Machine and Wagon Work, C.E. Vanbibber well driller, White’s Hardware and Undertaking, Day’s Variety Store, Tolliver’s Dry Goods, Johnston’s Millinery and General Store, and Dry Goods, Noah Harrison’s Dry Goods, C.W. Miller’s General Store. A newspaper, the Centralia Standard was established in 1902 by T.F. McCain and continued publication for several years. People who stopped overnight or for meals had the facilities of O.H. Johnson’s Hotel, Carpenter’s Hotel, and Hyman’s Hotel. “Mall Daniel had a boarding house which was a popular eating place in the 1920s”.

Early settlers were always concerned about having a good water supply. There was a well in the Centralia town square which continued to be used for many years to water stock in a trough. In 1912, it is told that Les White switched” a well in a street northeast of the center of the town which became known as the “town well”. A pump was put on it and later an engine to pump the water. It was used by all of the towns people. John Mowry had a motor at his blacksmith shop which ran an electric light plant providing power for home lights and streets. It was owned by the town and operated by Mowry.

The business district was built around a square; the only such one in Craig County. The central park contained a court house and there was a jail house behind it. Mr. Bowsman was the town marshal. The community had a library for the residents.

The town sponsored annual fall festivals which included a carnival with a merry-go-round priced at five cents a ride. The fair was held in the town square, and there was a large display of buggies and other vehicles. Luanna Mabery Monroe told that the fair festivities included horse races “in the middle of Centralia’s street”.

The first school building was a four-room frame structure in the north section of town. Early teachers included Mrs. Grace Anderson and Miss Clara Haggerman. In 1910, a four-room brick building was constructed in the southeast part of town and the early frame school was torn down. Tom W. Smith was Centralia superintendent at the time. He later became Craig County Superintendent of Schools.

The schools in those early days were heated with large coal-burning pot-bellied stoves for which the teacher was responsible. The youngsters brought half-gallon syrup buckets filled with lunches of ham, homemade light bread or biscuits left from breakfast, some-times baked sweet potatoes and fruit. They either walked to school, sometimes for miles, or some came by horseback or buggy and stabled the horses for the day at the livery barn.

In 1925 after consolidation of several outlying districts, the four-room brick school was remodeled into a ten-room building with a large gymnasium. While the new school was being constructed, classes were held in houses, churches, and in the lodge hall over the First State Bank. It was largely through the efforts of J.W. McCollum, superintendent, that consolidation was accomplished. The Centralia schools closed in 1968-69 when the district was annexed by Bluejacket and White Oak.

A fire January 11, 1907 destroyed much of the business district, including the two-story hotel run by Mrs. Ollie Carpenter. The volunteer fire department was unsuccessful in saving it. One-third of the business district of Centralia was destroyed by fire on July 22, 1917. The buildings were frame except for the two-story brick bank, and the southwest corner of the business district on the square was demolished by the blaze.

The church was the center of community social life. For some years, the congregations shared a building which the Methodists owned. By 1915, the Church of Christ, Missionary Baptist, and Primitive Baptists had their own buildings. There was also a Holiness Congregation. Members of the Primitive Baptist Church included the O.E. Odells, Charlie Christians, and the Chaney families. The Methodist congregation included the Montgomery’s: T.R., T.C. Howard and Jack, the Andy Martins, Jim Armors, Judge F.L. Haymes. The Church of Christ members included the George B. Parks, James 0. Nix, and, Legg families.

Mrs. Lizzie (Gleason) Oskison recalled that two of the first automobiles in Craig County were owned in 1910 by Centralia men: Richard Oskison, her brother-in-law, and T.C. Montgomery. “They about scared the horses to death coming down the road. The cars didn’t have doors.” There was a Camp Fire Girls organization in the town in the 1920s, with Miss Mary Bragg, teacher, as the leader. Girls included Margarite and Ruby Lee Parks, Jewell Carlock, Bernice and Opal Webb, and Leona Chaney.

The fires in downtown Centralia, the 1929 depression and the resulting closing of the banks in the town, the abandonment of the promised railroad spur from Vinita to Coffeyville which was planned to go to Centralia, and the re-routing of the Ozark Trail all contributed to the demise of Centralia.
A photograph of the Centralia City Council taken between 1897 and 1904. James Washington Lafayette Blair is in the picture, and he lived in Centralia during that period. According to a later newspaper he was city clerk and postmaster while at Centralia. Others in the photo are: J.H. Van Ausdal, Rob Allen, Les White, W.E. Ware, W.W. Clapper, and Henry Heiman. However, the photo does not identify who goes with which name.

There were 43 residents in the 1980 census, as of 2010 those numbers have dwindled quite considerably to about 7 or 8 homesteads & the only original buildings left are the ones featured in the gallery.

 

An oil well drilled in Nowata struck “radium” water at a depth of 1500 feet. Many people touted the health benefits of this water and thus the Savoy hotel added “Radium Water Baths”. So on February 16, 1916, J. R. Cruff started a Radium water bathhouse at the Savoy. The bathhouse had the latest and most modern apparatus with bathing experts in charge.
The mineral baths were good at healing for rheumatism, stomach trouble, malaria, nervous trouble, skin diseases, as said by the owner J.R. CRUFF. (source: Men of Affairs and representative Institutions of OK, 1916)

In the 1940’s it was the County Hospital.

Some renovation was done in the 1990’s and the building was used for events, dinners, weddings, and even for a feature film, “Possums”, in 1998.

But the roof began leaking a few years ago and soon nature was rapidly trying to reclaim what man had built 100 years ago.

For much more information, and to learn about helping to preserve this great piece of history, visit http://www.savethesavoy.com.

 

Much tragedy tended to surround the Labadie family in the early 1900’s. Accidental deaths were common leaving room for exaggeration as the years passed.

The Labadie’s were a ranching family who owned a farm somewhere along the Caney River. Frank and Samantha Labadie had three sons, George, John and Paul. Their daughter, Mrs. Lola Thurman, died in 1933 just two years before her elderly parents died.

A story entitled “The April Fools Ghost,” was submitted to Green Country Living in 1980. It told a fictional tale of three teenage boys who went searching for the old Labadie House. They had heard that the house was the site of a tragic murder. In the story they believed that Mr. Labadie had gone insane on April Fools Day and thrown his family out the third story attic window before committing suicide himself.

The story stirred up mixed emotions among family members still living in the Bartlesville area. Frank’s nieces, Blanche Labadie Mounts and Winifred V. Labadie, decided to write a letter to the editor to set the record straight.

On April 1, 1935, Mr. and Mrs. Labadie were found dead in their home. They had been asphyxiated by carbon-monoxide fumes from a gas burning stove with poor ventilation. The couple had just recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with all their friends and family. Frank was 75 years of age and his wife was 68 when they died. The so called haunted house from the GCL article was actually owned by their son George which Frank and Samantha never lived in.

“We are sorry to disappoint the thrill seeking public but there were no murders, no suicide, just a case of accidental deaths,” the women said in closing.

An old photograph shows the Charles L. Labadie family in 1927.
While the GCL and the Labadie nieces hoped to “lay to rest” all the myths and legends, the tale continues to be told, changing a little with every repetition. After two fires the stone fireplace is the only thing still standing among the debris of the dilapidated home. The sight is met only by malfunctioning flashlights, strange invisible people shouting the names of all those present, odd smells and strange animals rushing through the darkness and vegetation just out of sight and reach. Though the most terrifying of all is when the fireplace sudden begins to blaze at the top of the hill bidding farewell to the frightened guests.

One teen stated, “This is our entertainment, and I will attest that it is much more fun than going to the mall or movies.”

Whether these myths and others like them are the concoctions of teenage imaginations, mere optical illusions or truth is still to be discovered. But beware to those thrill seekers brave enough to find the truth for the twist at the end of the road may be more than bargained for and the truth may find peace at last for those families still affected by the mysterious legends.

Thanks to: http://okwustudents.net/advweb/swears/?p=9 for the excerpts from their story

 

“An institution, founded to transform Indian youth was paradoxically given life by the very people whose tribal identities it was committed to erase”

-K. Tsianina Lomawaima “They call it Prairie Light”
Chilocco was founded in 1884 as an agricultural school for Native Americans. From 1884 until the early 1930s Chilocco operated according to a template devised by U.S. Army officer Richard H. Pratt at Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. The large off-reservation schools used rigorous military discipline and stressed instruction in trades and manual and domestic labor known as “actual work.” Alumni from these years remember twenty-two bugle calls a day, Government-issue uniforms, scanty meals, inadequate health care, and a lack of individual attention. Life at Chilocco was very difficult for many in its early years. The harsh regimen was the driving force to integrate, assimilate and civilize the Native Americans. They also remember the bonds of loyalty and love that knit students together, and the rivalries of tribe, degree of blood, age, and language difference that cross-cut school society.

Before reforms from the federal Indian Service in the 1930’s, Chilocco was under strict militarized rule. Every moment of the students lives was scheduled and controlled by staff members. Perfection was the only acceptable way of life. Beds were to be made every morning perfectly, much in the way the military does today. Alumni recall tests involving coins being dropped onto their beds. If it didn’t bounce, every bed in the often overcrowded dorms were overturned and each student was to begin again. While moving about the campus each student was lined up according to height. They marched in formation at all times. Any wavering from this was immediate punishment. Chilocco’s discipline plan was based on a system of demerits. These were to be “worked off”. One demerit equalled one hour of work. Girls often had to polish the terrazzo floors until they shined “so they could see their faces” or making pillowcases and mending the uniforms. (K. Tsianina Lomawaima-They Called it Prairie Light”) Boys were often required to work in what they called the rock pile. This involved taking huge limestone boulders and splitting them into smaller ones for construction projects at the school. Although this strict way of life was harsh, many students appreciate how it benefited them later in life. However some do not.

In 1928 an expose of federal Indian Service mismanagement scathingly critiqued conditions in the boarding schools, including Chilocco, and in the early 1930s some reforms were introduced. Boys and girls could sit together in the dining rooms, more attention was invested in academic work, and drudgery work devoted to school upkeep was cut back. Nonetheless, many aspects of student life endured: separation from home and family for years at a time, devotion to fellow students, strict discipline, and curricula that remained focused more on vocational than academic preparation. A copy of an older Chiloccoan yearly depicts this:

The institution was established and is maintained by the United States Government, not to give its students anything but to loan them each a few hundred dollar’s worth of Board, Clothing, and Tuition. The tuition is in the following lines:

Academic.-This course is the equivalent of the usual High School Course but not the same. Non-essentials are eliminated and one half of each day is given to industrial training and the other half to academic studies. All effort is directed toward training Indian boys and girls for efficient and useful lives under the conditions which they must meet after leaving school.

Vocational.- Special stress is placed upon the courses in Agriculture and Home Economics for these reasons:

1. The Indian has nine chances to earn a livelihood and establish a permanent home in a congenial environment as a farmer to every one in any other pursuit.

2. His capital is practically all in land, of which he must be taught the value, and which is appreciated as of any considerable value only when he has gained the skill and perseverance by means of which he can make it highly productive.

Our large farm of nearly 9,000 acres offers unusual facilities for giving practical instruction in Farming and Stock raising, Gardening, Dairying, and Horticulture.

The course in Mechanical Arts offers Instruction in Printing, Engineering, Carpentry, Blacksmithing, Masonry, Shoe and Harness Making and Painting.

The girls are furnished instruction in every department of home making including Domestic Science and Domestic Art and Nursing. Instruction in instrumental music is provided for those who manifest talent for it.

Vocation at Chilocco was heavily entrenched in the curriculum. The thought was that the Indian students would have a better chance of leading useful and productive lives if they were taught how to live and how to provide rather than be educated as a white student in a public school. “Life instruction” was also an aspect of students lives. Many could not speak English, could not use a telephone, or write. Enunciation was not only an exercise but a necessity as the soft accents of the Native American often came through in the English language they spoke. The development to bring the control of perfect diction was a way the children could come into the mainstream of the American lifestyle. Assimilating the Indians was very much about the limiting of ones cultural background in the pursuit of a civilized way of life. Girls were even instructed on how to make a home. As Donna depicts in her article -from Electricscotland.com

“Maybe five or six girls were plucked from the dormitory to spend a short training period by actually staying in the small house or cottage together. The purpose was a kind of living training for being prepared to care for our own homes. Meals were prepared and served at a table instead of at the sterile cafeteria where we normally took our food. The small number at the table created more of a family situation. Napkins, silverware, delicate water glasses made the table setting pleasant. The girls never tired of the ice in their glasses even though it was during the coldest time in the winter. This was a pleasure not normally enjoyed as each had walked through the chow line at Leupp Hall.”

Chilocco emphasized the individual. They taught that personal fulfillment and protection was the most important aspect of life. For many this was a difficult concept to comprehend. This ideal was a complete juxtaposition to what many students were raised to believe. Tribal life teaches the importance of the greater good of the group, as opposed to the later. Having been separated from their families, many students struggled to maintain this way of life and often, many ran away because of the difficulty this separation caused. As a resort many formed what the students called clans. Often they would immediately side with members of their tribe, which, often caused rifts among classmates and along tribal lines.

Religion was also an important lesson taught to students. All of the employees were heavily involved in their Christian faith. As a result Christianity was the only religion available to students. Each week a service would be held that featured a different faith, as one former student recalls. “ At Chilocco once a week the service was staccato like, orderly, reverent and with beautiful music. Another service the next week would be a speaker who reasoned with the students in a rather paternal like, manner. Still another speaker would be a podium pounding, energetic, fire-breathing-advocate for saving our souls from hell-fire. Mostly I kept my head down so as not to giggle at the thought of how sinful could we be? There we were almost, virtually prisoners in a rigid military regime. How much sinning could we do when we were scheduled so tightly to such a close timing that we actually had little time to make an error.”

Later though, the school and its employees began to respect the Native Americans cultural belief. Around 1955 the Indian Club was established. It allowed students to practice their beliefs and was open to any student who wished to join.

The campus of Chilocco is centered around a Main oval, with buildings having to do with the operating of the school extending out from its center. All of the original buildings on the campus are constructed out of limestone quarried from the property. They are very imposing structures, enduring, and lasting. Thus giving the campus an appearance of dominance and control. At the north end of the oval is Leupp Hall. This was where all meals were had. Vocations in weaving, cooking and baking, sewing, health and nursing classes, and family values were taught. Social training was taught here also for girls to learn how to put on banquets and parties. On the east side of the building was the bakery which served two purposes. It provided the bread and other pastries for the daily meals of the total student body and was training for boys who wished to work at this as a vocation after they graduated. The kitchen was located in this building and there was the latest equipment in use. A walk in cold storage stored produce from the school’s orchards and gardens. Great stainless steel vats cooked the food. Beef, mutton, and pork produced by the school was cooked here.

To the east and south of Leupp is one of the girls dormitories, Home 4, the Employees Club and more social training classrooms. These older dormitories usually held four girls in each room. Each was allowed a very small closet of their own in the room. There are several communal restrooms and showers on every floor of the three story building. A central entry hall and day room like area featured a beautifully carved mantel and fireplace.

Immediately south of of these buildings is the imposing structure on Hayworth Hall. It housed the auditorium, principals office, and vocational classes in the basement. The stage in the auditorium was where many different presentations were made for the students enjoyment. There was a projector room on top of of this room, and this is where movies were shown on a screen. These movies were where girls and boys were allowed to enjoy each other’s company as a kind of date.

Speeches, pageants, church services on Sunday, visiting dignitaries, all shared their moments in the limelight. The choir also presented their programs here. On the nights the choir performed, everyone, boys and girls, gathered in the basement. They were organized this way because they were required to march into the auditorium. The auditorium has a large balcony which encircles the lower area. Stunning balustrades round the balcony.This is one of many buildings that is in total disrepair. Most notably because the roof has completely caved in upon the once grand auditorium. The red stage curtain still hangs with the large gold cursive C. Hayworth Hall is named after the man who chose the site for Chilocco.

The gym and pool buildings are across the oval and behind Home 6. Chilocco was known for its award winning boxing team which held its practices here, along with the basketball,and the swim teams. Dances and socials as well as pageants took place in the gym. To the west is a newer building, a dormitory for boys. It was built in the 1960’s when Chilocco received federal funds to improve the campus. It has two large day areas at its front and a cafeteria. The dorm is three floors, with each room housing 4-6 boys. Students had their own dressing area with a small built in desk and closet. Although this building is the newest structure on the campus it too is in a serious state of disrepair. Broken windows are everywhere. Holes have been punched into the walls and plumbing was been salvaged. Although it is in a dire state, it is important to mention that small memories of past students are drawn on walls. Small drawings and messages to other classmates show the life that was once here.

To the west of this building is the vocational area. Buildings for studies in laundry, drafting, welding, and woodcraft. Here you can still find curriculum scrolled on blackboards and posters. The laundry still has its semester plan which involved classes on how to remove different stains from clothing, and dry cleaning. There are still large pressing machines here. A small gas station and auto shop are directly behind. The fire station and it’s fire truck are still intact also. The fire engine still gleams red. Emblazoned on its side “Chilocco Indian School Bureau of Indian Affairs”

Staff housing, and the school incinerator are to the west of this area, as well as the water tower that looms over the campus. To the north behind Leupp Hall and west are the dormitories that NARCANON refurbished. They have central courtyards and are larger then the girls dorm next to Hayworth Hall. The walls are painted pastel pink and dark green. What they assumed as Native American motifs are painted as borders throughout the buildings. These buildings have a large day room with a grand fireplace and a bowed window. However, furniture is strewn about the building and scientology paraphernalia is scattered about. North of this was additional staff housing as well as the practice cottage.

But the most beautiful part of Chilocco is the immense lake. A small foot bridge with white railings crosses the water. Ducks, and geese move through the gentle water. Being that this is the first thing you see after you come up the long drive from the entrance, the stage is set for a beautiful school, set alone on the Oklahoma prairie. Although the campus and school was impressive, lasting and well equipped to continue educating Native American youth well in the the future, it’s decline began.

During the 1960’s and 1970’s Chilocco was on a track to closure. Enrollment and funds began to dwindle. It was becoming more expensive to house and educate the students than if they were to attend public schools. Chilocco was now no longer serving it’s surrounding areas. In 1972, 158 students were from tribes in Oklahoma, 605 students were from elsewhere, mostly Alaska. Senator Bellman lobbied that the school be closed amid severe budget cuts. In their eyes, the school had served it’s purpose, it had brought the American Indian into the main stream of society. And with that there was no longer a need for the institution.

Chilocco also suffered from a series of scandals that plagued the school until it closed. In 1972 Carlton Grass beat a fellow student, Eugene Voight. Grass beat Voight to death in a dormitory. The national Youth Council sent out letters to parents regarding “unreasonable restraints on children, invasion of privacy, inadequate recreational activities, ineffective counseling, illegal detention of juveniles, and lack of parental and tribal control.” They cited the unlawful detention of several girls in the Newkirk jail. Also in 1972 the National Indian Youth Council staged a sit-in in the administration office. They demanded “an examination of all phases of education from curriculum to brutality” . Although, it is important to note, that a Daily Oklahoman article states that the students support the school and that the student council opposed the sitin and the letter. After this though enrollment dropped rapidly. When Chilocco opened it housed well over 800 to 1,000 students well into the 1950’s. Now it barely held 100. Chilocco was dying.

The last class to graduate from Chilocco had only 11 students. It’s dilapidated structures were no longer maintained and the campus was a shell of what it once used to be. At the last commencement ceremony held, Chilocco’s superintendent C.O. Tillman addressed the remaining students “Let’s go out of here smiling and proud if the school is closed. So we can look each other in the eye when we meet again and know we did our best” They were unsure if the school would re-open in the fall. However one attendant at the the event says “the OG&E trucks were there waiting to cut off the electricity, ONG was there to cut off the gas”. It is a very sullen moment to realize that a place that offered many so much hope and determination was no longer a reality. Chilocco closed and the gates were locked.

Chilocco is owned by five tribes: The Kaws, Tonkawas, Pawnees, Poncas, and Otoes. After its closure they sought ways to save the school. They attempted to turn the school into an Indian College but this never came to fruition. They had no other options until NARCANON arrived. NARCANON, which is a Scientology based drug and alcohol rehab center opened around 1990. In much fanfare Kirstie Alley opened the center as Chilocco New Life Center. Alley is a driving force in Narcanon and Scientology They hoped to encompass the entire campus of Chilocco to have the largest NARCANON center in the world.

Based on the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard, NARCANON’s treatments are based on sauna like exposure, where patients sweat the drugs out of their system with heavy doses of vitamins and rigorous exercise. These treatments are not approved in Oklahoma. Thus they never obtained an official license from the Oklahoma Department Health. They only recieved temporary liscenses. NARCANON argued that since they were on tribal lands they were exempt from state law. The surrounding areas also protested the arrival of NARCANON. They leased the land for 25 years but paid nothing to the tribes for the first two. And they also failed to pay the state in back taxes. Narcanon relocated to Lake Eufala in 2001, which is no longer open.

The story of Chilocco is one of bravery, heartache and perseverance. For many it represents the best years of their lives. For others it was their worst. It’s purpose to assimilate is controversial but realize that it was not alone. Many other Indian boarding schools across the country existed for the same purpose. Chilocco at times was hell and at others was heaven. Alumni look back and recall their memories. Their opportunity to better themselves. A school such as Chilocco is a monument to the hardships of the Native American people. Having been forced out of their homes to integrate into an “American” society is a hardship that most often fail to realize. Chilocco is still here though. It is a historic landmark and is apart of not only Native American’s history but ours as well. Chilocco was called “the light on the prairie”, Although its halls are dark and silent, it still shines as a part of every Native American.

“The smoke from the bowl of the peace pipe has died down, yet there is one bright ember still glowing. Keep it alight students of Chilocco”

-Chiloccoan graduating class of 1931

WARNING: Chilocco Is heavily guarded by both 24/7 security as well as a large pack of guard dogs. This is not a place for you to get in you car and go visit. This is for your online viewing pleasure only. Because this land is being used by law enforcement as practice and training grounds, it is governed by federal police; not local police. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO VISIT CHILOCCO INDIAN SCHOOL.

Chilocco Zone 1 AOK

75 Photos

Chilocco Zone 2 AOK

52 Photos

Chilocco Zone 3 AOK

65 Photos

Chilocco Zone 4 AOK

10 Photos

Chilocco Zone 5 AOK

29 Photos

Chilocco Zone 6 AOK

59 Photos

Chilocco Zone 7 AOK

14 Photos

Chilocco Zone 8 AOK

56 Photos

Chilocco Zone 9 AOK

35 Photos

Chilocco Zone 10 AOK

38 Photos

Chilocco Zone 11 AOK

7 Photos

Chilocco Historic Photos

172 Photos

 

The first Washington elementary school was built in 1907 at a total cost of $12,000. The original building burned down and was replaced in 1930 with a $60,000 building at Third and Seminole. A 1952 addition of an all-purpose room and classroom cost $73,727.
The last classes were held at this school in May 1978.

The building housed the state Regional Educational Services Center for many years, but that program now leases space at the old McKinley grade school.

The building also once housed indoor batting cages, etc. for the district baseball program. Washington School was sold to Restoring Life Ministries in March 1998 for $8,000.

The property was then sold by that ministry on 2/1/2006 for $30,000 to
private owners.

 

Special credit & thanks go to Granger Meador & Bartlesville Area History Meusem for their historical photos.

Special thanks to John Crockett for giving the location of this school and Janice Jones of Tulsa Public Schools for help researching the school.

 

At first you may just notice a barren field and nothing else, but it doesn’t take long to realize the full history of this strange, abandoned plot. Concrete foundations checker the tan grass while rusty metal poles protrude out of the bushes and trees. There are several houses that have

long since been vacated and later vandalized by passers-by. Further into the acreage, hidden behind some thick brush, you’ll start getting an idea of what this place used to be.

Gandini’s Circus went on for some time between the 1900’s and 1930, touring across various parts of the states. Fragments of the circus still linger around including 4 or 5 trailers where the clowns, acrobats and animals were housed. Even the cages, large and small, are still there– discarded when the circus apparently disbanded. Although many of the trailers are burnt from the inside out by either arson or a terrible accident, you can still find fliers, popcorn bags and soda cups along with assorted pieces of memorabilia throughout the area.

What makes the area so spooky is not the place’s background, but it’s lack of obvious history. I’ve tried to search the Internet for information on the circus but could only find a few pages vaguely relating to what it was. Digging through the ashes in and around the trailers I was able to find a few old fliers in tact that shed some light on the place, but still not enough to make this area any less frightening.

The real scare comes at night, walking through this barren place, maybe tripping over an old cougar cage or deflated clown ball, when the full scope of what ‘haunted’ really boils down to. Afterall, there may be nothing more dreadful than a haunted circus burned to the ground. A place does not necessarily require ghosts to be haunted, but if it’s scary enough, maybe we’re the ones who create them.

-Written by Robert Cole

Pulled from here

 

Guthrie Homestead
Gandinis Circus
Fallis Homestead
Ealsboro, OK
St. Vincents Home
Bryant Center
Chilocco Indian School
Page Woodson School
Ponderosa Water Park
Labodie Mansion
Norfolk School
Logan County Memorial Hospital
Hissom Memorial Center
The Skirvin Hotel

Located eight miles north of Miami on U.S. Highway 69 in Ottawa County, Picher is Oklahoma’s most northeastern incorporated city. Its city limits adjoin the Kansas state line. In late 1913 the town developed around the lead and zinc ore strike on Harry Crawfish’s allotment. Picher’s name honored O. S. Picher, owner of the Picher Lead Company. Statewide newspapers reported that the town was born overnight. Picher incorporated in March 1918. It had a population of 9,726 in 1920, which peaked at 14,252 in 1926, at the height of mining. As mining activity decreased, the population dropped steadily to 5,848 in 1940 and to 2,553 in 1960.

Picher was the most productive mining field in the Tri-State Lead and Zinc District (Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri) and produced more than $20 billion in ore from 1917 to 1947. Over 50 percent of the lead and zinc metal consumed in World War I came from the Picher Field. During the mining boom years more than fourteen thousand men worked in its mines, and another four thousand worked in approximately fifteen hundred mining service businesses. Many of these workers commuted to work using an extensive trolley car system that ran all the way to Carthage, Missouri. In the subsequent years Picher could not attract new industry, because a majority of the real estate belonged to restricted Quapaw heirs and because the town had many mines distributed underneath the surface.

O. S. Picher provided the city’s first deep water well, thereby providing the beginning of a municipal water system. The leasing system employed for mining dictated that an ore reduction mill be built on each forty-acre tract. In 1927 there were 248 mills operating in the Picher Field, and this continued until the late 1930s when centralized milling resulted in mill consolidation. When lead and zinc mining finally ceased in 1967, pumping water from the mines ceased and they began to fill with water, accumulating 76,800 acre-feet of mine water under ground. This contaminated water began to seep from the mines in 1973. In 1983 the Picher area became part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund Site program. With 1,400 mine shafts in the Picher area, 70 million tons of waste tailings, and 36 million tons of mill sand and sludge, environmental clean up was a monumental task.

In 2008, The EPA finished the clean up of the Superfund site. This was done by a mixture of buyouts, chat sales, on-site disposals, rural residential yard contamination cleanup, soil cleansing, and rural residential well sanitization. Overall totaling over one hundred and sixty million dollars before it was completed. Those who were willing to be bought out did so. Those who stayed behind were supplied with alternative ways to utilizing the wells that were contaminated. Additionally, “chat” that had once been piled on top of the soil was put back into the mines to support the land and reduce human exposure to lead dust.

After all of the work that was completed to make the town livable again, an F4 tornado came through the town of Picher on May 10, 2008. The tornado tragically took the lives of six people and injured at least one-hundred and fifty others.

In May of 2009 The Picher-Cardin school systems hosted its final graduating class & on July 1st the 90 year old district closed its doors forever.

Today, all that can be seen in the town is overgrown house foundations, and a few remaining buildings, which are now crudely spray painted as government property.

Other Links:

Fredas Cook, a long time resident, has put together a great database of history and pictures. For a lot of great information about Picher and Cardin, visit his siteHere.