The towns of Beaver County, Oklahoma

Beaver is fourteen miles north of State Highway 3 on U.S. Highway 270/State Highway 23, or six miles south of the junction of U.S. Highway 270 and U.S. Highway 64. A mile north of the town is Beaver Dune State Park, featuring a formation of sand dunes left by ancient seas that covered the area. The town of Beaver, originally named "Beaver City," is the seat of the Oklahoma Panhandle's easternmost county. It was also the seat of the seventh county of Oklahoma Territory as well as the capital of Cimarron Territory. Beaver began as a halfway stop on the Jones and Plummer Trail, where in 1880 an enterprising man named Jim Lane built a house on the south side of the Beaver River. This house served as a general store, saloon, hotel, and restaurant. The building still stood at the beginning of the twenty-first century and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places (NR 74001654). The first post office had been established on the north side of the river in 1883. In 1884 Lane moved the post office to his store and became the postmaster. Charles Edward Jones and Joe H. Plummer had carried crucial supplies to Gen. Nelson A. Miles and Gen. Philip H. Sheridan during the 1874 Indian campaign. The two merchants had also shipped buffalo hides north, as well as materials for building Fort Elliott at Mobeetie, Texas. This brought much traffic to the new multipurpose house. Lane built a corral and livery stable adjacent to the store to accommodate freighters and cattle drivers.  In the town's early history the Beaver River flooded out one of the original two streets, Main Street, and business were built on the other street, Douglas, running south up the hill from the river. Since the area belonged to no state or nation, there were no laws. A vigilante committee tried to enforce its own justice until 1886, when the area known as No Man's Land or the Public Land Strip was organized illegally into Cimarron Territory, with Beaver City as its capital. The federal government never recognized the territorial government, but Beaver City remained the seat of business and law enforcement. In 1900 the population was 112. The economy of Beaver City and the surrounding area depended on cattle ranching until 1902-1903, when the Homestead Act brought farmers, whom ranchers sometimes derided as "pumpkin rollers," to the area. This changed the town's population and commerce. One of the first businesses was the Groves Hotel, later known as the Thompson Hotel. It was built in 1885. In 1891 Carter Tracy moved to Beaver and built a general hardware and implement company. The first newspaper was the Territorial Advocate, established in 1887. Although the name changed to the Herald Democrat, the paper continued to inform the county into the twenty-first century. In 1905 W. T. Quinn established a telephone exchange. The 1910 U.S. Census reported 326 inhabitants.  In the early years of the twentieth century, two banks, the Bank of Beaver City and the First National Bank, were established. The Beaver, Meade and Englewood Railroad was built to connect to the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway in Forgan, seven miles to the north. Other new businesses included the OK Barber Shop, the Beaver Cleaners, the Goetzinger Grocery, the Beaver Motor Company, the Home Lumber Company, and a number of saloons and hotels. The town, as well as the rest of the area, suffered during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, when the population greatly decreased.  The town also accommodates a hospital, nursing home, and two medical clinics, one that was headed by Dr. Ed Calhoon, a fifty-year practitioner of medicine in Beaver. There are ten churches, among them the Presbyterian Church, established in 1887 and built at a cost of one thousand dollars. The church building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 as "the oldest church in Oklahoma Territory". The Beaver County Courthouse is also listed.

Elmwood is a small unincorporated community located at the junction of US Highway 270 and US Highway 412 in Beaver County, Oklahoma, United States. The Post Office was opened January 26, 1888.

 
Forgan lies between the Cimarron and Beaver rivers seven miles north of Beaver on U.S. Highway 64/270 and two miles west of State Highway 23, in part of the area once known as No Man's Land or the Public Land Strip (Oklahoma Panhandle). The community began as a railroad town when the Wichita Falls and Northwestern Railway, the first railroad in Beaver County, built west from Woodward to meet the needs of farmers and ranchers in the newly settled area. The name honored James B. Forgan, a Chicago banker and financier. The town was surveyed on January 3, 1912, and the first town lot sale was February 15, 1912.  The first business established was the Forgan Town Site Office, with W. L. Beardsley as company representative. L. B. Tooker established the first newspaper, the Forgan Enterprise, on June 6, 1912. Other businesses were three lumber companies, three drug stores, three hotels, and six hauling companies, with a total of fifty-three businesses and four medical doctors. Grain elevators were built to store the wheat prior to shipment on the new railroad. J. H. Lawson built a large warehouse to store broomcorn, a major area crop. The first church in the new town was the Methodist Episcopal Church, founded in 1903 north and east of the present town site and moved to Forgan in 1912. A Baptist Church was erected in 1913. In 1915 the Church of Christ purchased a building from the Methodist Church, to make three churches in the new town. Later, a Christian Church was established as well, and for a time the Pentecostal Holiness Church occupied a former grocery store on Main Street. The 1920 population stood at 582 residents, climbing to 605 in 1930, but dropping in 1940 to 428, because of an exodus in the early 1930s due to the Dust Bowl. After the railroad closed in the 1970s and a downtown fire occurred in the 1990s, only fifteen businesses remained at the end of the twentieth century, one of which was a water service, supplying the oil and gas industry. This company became one of the town's largest employers. However, due to a grant, the town rebuilt the sidewalks, installed new street lights, and created an attractive Main Street. At the turn of the twenty-first century the economy was based on wheat and milo farming, ranching, the oil and gas industry, and corporate hog farms. There were four mainstream churches, a Senior Citizens' Center, and a Community Center.

Gate is situated three miles west of the Harper-Beaver county line on U.S. Highway 64. The town was platted in 1883 as Gate City and finally established in 1886 as a post office. Once a part of the cattleman's domain and home for "squatter" homesteaders in the region, Gate City received its name because it was located close to the gate of the drift fence built by the cattlemen. The region was a paradise for thieves and outlaws until a vigilante group was formed to protect the settlers' families and property. As part of the region called No Man's Land, Gate became a part of Oklahoma Territory with the passage of the Organic Act of 1890. In 1894 Gate City had several businesses and a star mail route running to Beaver City. That year, the name was changed to Gate. The community served a surrounding ranching and agricultural economy. By 1910 Gate's citizens enjoyed a number of commercial establishments, including a hotel, billiard parlor, barber shop, grocery, hardware, bank, bakery, lumberyard, millinery shop, doctor's office, feed mill, and two blacksmiths. In 1912, when the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway built tracks a mile west of town, the citizens platted a new town there and moved their buildings to Gate's present location. Early residents strongly believed in academic and spiritual education. Country schools were built, and in 1893 a Methodist circuit preacher began his work. In 1905 the Society of Friends (Quakers), who had earlier moved to the Gate area as a group, established Laurence Friends Academy, the first institution of higher learning west of Woodward. Over the years Gate's citizens have been informed by the Gate Valley Star and the Gate City News. Agriculture has always been Gate's basic economic activity. Irrigation, which may have been used for crops in the area in ancient times, was begun by a commercial firm that developed an irrigation ditch shortly after 1900. It continued in use at the end of the twentieth century. Wheat and broomcorn were important early crops, and wheat remained important. However, industry has also been vital. Silica from an important volcanic ash deposit located northwest of town began to be mined in the early part of the century. Gas wells were developed from 1969. The population stood at 774 in 1907, peaked 958 in 1910, and declined to 309 in 1920. Although Gate lost many business in the 1930s, the town remained viable. The 1940, 1960, 1980, and 2000 censuses recorded 243, 130, 146, and 112, respectively. Historically, Gate residents enjoyed fishing, boating, and ice skating at Gate Lake, two miles east of town. The Gate Museum, established in 1975, preserves pioneer history; art by Marilyn Shahan illustrates the history of the community. A library and two churches provide academic and spiritual education. Gate School was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.

The town of Knowles in Beaver County began as Sands City and was incorporated by Frances and Allie Knowles on December 27, 1906. The original location was on the southeast quarter of the northwest quarter of Section 25, Township 5 North, Range 26 East of Cimarron Meridian. A townsite company was formed on February 15, 1907, by Dr. A. J. Sands, G. W. Meyer, W. L. Detwiler, and Francis E. Knowles. Sands was the only doctor in the vicinity at that time, hence the name of the original town. Fred Wells operated a small grocery and family store in his home and later moved it into a small building nearby. In 1907, when Sands City's townsite was actually surveyed and platted, he moved his store to the new area. Other businesses included a hardware store, a livery stable, a two-story hotel, a real estate office, a print shop, and a newspaper called the Farmers' News. There was also a blacksmith shop, a justice of the peace, and a horse-drawn mobile photo gallery with living quarters attached. By 1911 the community comprised an estimated fifty-two residents. Sands City and its schoolhouse was the nucleus of the area's church, school, and social life. In 1907 a postal designation as Knowles was approved by the Post Office Department. The name honored the Knowles family, as Alice Knowles Lundy was the first postmaster. This caused great confusion, because the town was named Sands City, but the post office was Knowles. However, the arrival of the Wichita Falls and Northwestern Railway in 1912 eliminated the confusion. A new townsite was platted in the quarter section adjacent to Sands City on the north, and buildings were moved there to be closer to the railroad. The town's name was changed to Knowles. There had been a building site sale, and lots were sold for homes and other interests purchased property along the railroad. The main intersection was at Main Street and Broadway. New businesses included the Sappington Grain Company, Cooley and Richfield Grain Company, the Farmers' Elevator, a broomcorn shed, and a wood-frame ice house. Magnolia Oil Company had storage tanks and a loading dock for barrels and cans. The railroad built stock pens, drilled a water well, and erected a depot. In 1913 the new Whitehouse Hotel was built. Another hotel was the Gambs. The Fort Supply Telephone Company's Knowles exchange was operated by Jessie Hamilton. The Farmers' State Bank, established by W. Guy Parker from Alva, Oklahoma, was an important part of the new town. In 1912 Zella Alkire quit teaching, took the state pharmacy examination, and established a drug store. She shortly thereafter married a newly arrived doctor, Charles Rogers. He practiced in Knowles until 1921. The next year Dr. A. L. Nichols arrived to establish his practice in one of the hotels. A Dr. Maine also practiced. An estimated 1918 population of three hundred supported a Church of the Nazarene, established in 1914, a Friends Church (Society of Friends, Quakers), established in 1910, and a Methodist Church, established in 1912. At first the Friends met with the Methodists. In 1913 the Methodists were able to begin a new church building. In 1913 the Friends purchased the original school building, later transferring it to the Zelma community where a Friends meeting used it for years. School was begun in Sands City in a little sod shanty. Finally, a frame building was erected and served until a brick schoolhouse was constructed in 1913 in Knowles. Another school was built in 1927 and operated until 1966, but it closed for lack of enrollment. The school's fate reflects the community's steady population decline from 219 in 1930 to 104 in 1940, 62 in 1960, 44 in 1980, and 18 in 1990. When the railroad closed its line to the Oklahoma Panhandle in the early 1970s, Knowles began to wither. In 2000 only two enterprises and an elevator operated in the once-prosperous town. Knowles is situated on U.S. Highway 64 between Gate and Forgan. The population is 32. A nearby ranch family donated a community building where descendants of the early pioneers meet for dinners and entertainment. The Knowles Grain Elevator is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Slapout is a small unincorporated community in Beaver County, Oklahoma, United States. The land upon which part of the town sits was homesteaded by Joseph L. Johnston. It sits on the northwest corner of the land Johnson had acquired with a government claim in 1904, three years before Oklahoma became a state.  With the construction of Highway Three across Oklahoma during the Great Depression, Tom Lemons, who had bought the Johnson homestead, moved a chicken coup to where the highway passed his land. In the chicken coup he started a store. He told The Tulsa Tribune he had nothing else to do during the depression, so he thought he'd start a town. He named his town, Nye, after the Progressive U.S. Senator Gerald Nye (R, N.D.)   However, local legend says whenever one of the highway workers entered the store in Nye, they were often told by Lemon's sister the store was "slap out" of whatever they wanted. Tom Lemons insisted his sister never used the phrase. However, the name stuck. When Tom continued to insist his side of the highway was called "Nye," patrons responded that the south side of the highway could be "Slapout" and the north side with Lemon's store was "Nye Out."  Tom Lemons finally gave in and the store and gas station became "Slapout." At one time, the town had 10 inhabitants and included the Hagan Grocery on the south side of the highway. Lemons also built a building to house his rock collection.  Today the gas station in the town (population perhaps 3)is a regular stop for Tulsa and Oklahoma skiers traveling to Colorado.  The town was featured in a newspaper photo essay by Robert R. Mercer in The Tulsa Tribune in the 1970s.

Turpin is a small unincorporated community in Beaver County, Oklahoma, United States. The post office was established April 8, 1925. The Turpin Grain Elevator is on the National Register of Historic Places.Turpin, Oklahoma was named after Carl Julian Turpin, a son of Thomas James Turpin and Elmanda (Kennerly ) Turpin. Carl was born on 10 Aug 1871 in Quantico, Wicomico County, Maryland. He died 20 Nov 1942 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma. Carl J. Turpin was the general manager of the Beaver, Mead and Englewood Railroad. In 1918, two Hardtner, Kansas farmers, Jacob Achenbach and Ira B. Blackstock, requested his assistance. Messrs. Achenbach and Blackstock had been asked by farmers in Beaver County, OK, and the surrounding areas to build a railroad through the Panhandle so that their wheat crops could be shipped to outlying markets. Achenbach and Blackstock knew how to build the railroad, but they needed someone to manage it. That is where Carl Julian Turpin came in.  Mr. Turpin had ample experience as a railroad man, his career beginning in 1888. Described as a ?by the book? type of general manager, Carl J. Turpin was a stern, well groomed man. He worked without salary, but did receive stock in the line, from 1918 until 1926. At its height, the Beaver, Mead and Englewood Railroad ran from Beaver, Oklahoma, to Eva, Oklahoma, with an extension and connection to the Santa Fe Railroad in Keyes, Oklahoma. The line connected with the Katy at Forgan, Oklahoma and the Rock Island at Hooker, Oklahoma. The BM&E was eventually sold to M-K-T (Katy) Railroad Company in 1931. ?When I was a kid 20 years old, but married, I used to want to work for a railroad which paid $50 a month and furnished its agents a two-story house on the line, rent, brooms, and matches free. Maybe I still could find something like that,? he (Carl J. Turpin) said, after the sale of the Beaver, Mead and Englewood Railroad. Turpin centers around its independent school district. It consists of a multi-building K-12 that draws its student body from surrounding farms and the housing communities of Ponderosa and Pheasant Run. This in turn means that while Turpin is smaller than the surrounding communities of Beaver, Forgan, Hooker, and Tyrone, it has a comparatively large student body.The school is the largest employer in the community, and the hub for community activities. Turpin comes to life between summers, beginning with football and basketball in the fall and ending with track, softball, and baseball in the spring. Turpin High School is recognized for its athletic success in class A winning championships in football, track, and golf. Turpin's most notable alumus is former Dallas Cowboys defensive back Lynn Scott.

Tyrone lies on U.S. Highway 54, midway between Hooker, Oklahoma, and Liberal, Kansas. Originally, the entire Panhandle was included in Beaver County, Oklahoma Territory. The Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska Railway completed its line south to Liberal, Kansas, in 1888. The railroad built a spur to a spot seven miles southwest of Liberal, about three miles inside the Public Land Strip (the Oklahoma Panhandle), and installed pens and loading chutes. To the southeast, they established a cattle-watering area called Shade's Well. Meanwhile, about three miles from Liberal, a community called Tyrone developed in 1888, and in May 1892 its post office was moved south into the newly designated Beaver County, Oklahoma Territory, near the spur and loading pens. In the 1890s the Tyrone-Shade area provided a major shipping center for herds from five states and territories. In 1901 the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway officially extended the rail line southwestward across Beaver County. A "new" Tyrone community grew up at the tracks and received a postal designation as Tyrone, Oklahoma Territory, in July 1902, with Hettie A. Duffy as postmaster. Tyrone was the first station south of Liberal. By 1905 the railroad had completed a depot complex, and Tyrone grew rapidly as a shipping point for cattle and grain. After Beaver County was divided at 1907 statehood, Tyrone was situated in Texas County. By 1909 the town had an estimated population of five hundred, a Baptist and Methodist church, a public school, and a bank. H. L. Huber's general store was one of three patronized by residents. A cotton gin and feed yard were available to area farmers. A brass band and A. J. Hughes's pool hall provided entertainment. The Tyrone Observer printed the news from 1904 through the mid-1940s, after which the Guymon Observer supplanted it. In 1912 the sparsely occupied, four-city-block town had an estimated population of 260, and two grain elevators served the agricultural area. Wheat was the main product, and cattle raising provided additional income. Some oil and gas production developed in the surrounding region in the 1920s. The state legislature approved Tyrone's incorporation in March 1915. The town claimed a trade territory of almost six hundred square miles, from Kansas to the Beaver (North Canadian) River, and by 1927 wheat production kept five elevators busy. The first official census, taken in 1930, recorded 482. Tyrone's population declined to a low of 257 in 1940, due to the Dust Bowl era drought and the Great Depression, but it rebounded thereafter, reaching 456 in 1960 and peaking at 988 in 1980. During the 1940s and 1950s approximately a dozen businesses still operated, including an elevator. Into the 1990s Tyrone's residents still supported four churches, an elementary school, a high school, and ten retail enterprises. Two oil-field roustabout services and a grain elevator operated there. The Union Pacific provided rail service. In 1990 and 2000 the census recorded 880 inhabitants.

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