Craig County Oklahoma History - presented by Genealogy Trails

Craig County, Oklahoma History

Big Cabin is five miles southwest of Vinita, two miles north of the Mayes County line, and immediately south of the Big Cabin exit on the Will Rogers Turnpike. The Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway named a switch "Big Cabin" after it built through the Cherokee Nation in 1871 and 1872. The name referred to a large plank cabin used by local American Indians about one and one-half miles northwest of the tracks. In 1888 entrepreneurs constructed a cattle stockyard with barn and scales. In 1892 the first two-story, frame building was constructed, a school for non-Indians began in 1895. In 1903 the railroad established a train depot. By the early 1900s residents supported four grocery stores, a hotel, a hardware store/undertaker, a cotton gin, and an elevator, among other businesses. In the early twentieth century the Indian Headlight, the Big Cabin Sun, the Big Cabin Sentinel, and the Big Cabin Monitor reported news and announcements. In 1904 the Cherokee Nation platted the town. In 1926 community leaders started the incorporation process but did not complete it until 1958. As early as 1871 the area's first post office was in operation, with S. T. Rogers as postmaster. In 1892 the Post Office Department assigned a postal designation to Big Cabin. The Jefferson Highway, a route from Winnipeg, Canada, to New Orleans, Louisiana, ran east to west through town, and west of town the road turned south to Adair. Later realigned north and south, the route became U.S. Highway 69. The Big Cabin region has been a major hay-producing and shipping area. In 1942 a local farmer claimed more hay had been shipped from Big Cabin between 1883 and 1910 than any other town in the United States, and he dubbed the village "the Hay Capital of the World." Big Cabin's population has remained relatively stable, with 271 in 1930 and 228 in 1960.

Bluejacket is approximately seventeen miles north and east of Vinita. In 1871 the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway established Bluejacket Station as construction pushed south through the Cherokee Nation from the Kansas border toward Texas. The site was named for Rev. Charles Bluejacket, chief of the Eastern Shawnee, who lived nearby. In 1882 the Post Office Department approved a post office, with Chief Bluejacket as the first postmaster. Bluejacket was incorporated in 1894. Agriculture provided the area's main income. During the early twentieth century principal businesses included a broom factory, a grain elevator, the Craig County Weekly Gazette, the Bluejacket News, and the Bluejacket Gazette, two banks, and a variety of other enterprises. Bluejacket's 1900 population of 303 climbed to 508 in 1910. In 1938 and 1939 major tornadoes destroyed much of the business district. The first struck on May 4, 1938, arriving from the northeast instead of the usual southwest. The storm killed a farmer and destroyed a number of barns and livestock. The second tornado descended on Craig County on August 24, 1939, cutting a ten-mile-wide path from south to north. The Bluejacket area took the brunt of the storm, which demolished three businesses and damaged all other establishments, as well as most houses in the town, injured dozens of people, killed many horses and cows, and re-oriented the railroad depot 90 degrees from it original position. Large hailstones slaughtered hundreds of chickens. Two young men died in the storm. The county's total property damage approached one-half million dollars. The 1940 population stood at 349 and fell to 234 by 1970. The remaining business district was slowly abandoned, and the last old building was demolished in 2003.

Ketchum is one mile north of the Mayes County line and one-half mile west of the Delaware County line. Ketchum was originally established in 1899 in present Mayes County, slightly more than a mile south-southwest of its present location, on the banks of Grand River along a wagon trail. The town was named for a Methodist minister, James Ketchum, a Delaware Indian, who relocated to Indian Territory in 1867 from Wyandotte County, Kansas. The Post Office Department established the post office on September 15, 1899, at the original townsite. By 1902 residents supported four general stores, one blacksmith shop, and a school. This first site is now under the waters of Grand Lake O' the Cherokees, but the town moved long before the lake's development. In 1912 the Missouri, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad, which became the Kansas, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway in 1919, was being constructed from southeastern Kansas south through Miami, Pensacola, and toward Texas. At that time Ealum and Minnie Belle (Lynch) Gregory sold forty acres of her Delaware Indian allotment to promoters of a new townsite near the railroad. New Ketchum was platted in late 1912. By 1920 many businesses had begun at or had been relocated to the new site. The first school in New Ketchum was a one-room building across the road from Gregory's land. The school land was part of Lena Ward's Indian allotment and was given or sold by her father, William Henry "H" Ward. In 1914 the first New Ketchum public school term began. Later, a three-story school house was built. The Ketchum Telegram and the Ketchum News reported to the town in the early twentieth century. The 1940 population of 611 declined to 254 in 1950. The First State Bank was organized in March 1913. Its original, two-story building was used until 1969. Bandits robbed the bank in 1923, killing cashier Frank Pitts. In 1934 robbers murdered bank president Ealum Gregory. After unsuccessful robberies in 1960 and 1961, the bank constructed a new building one-half block south of the original, which later housed a restaurant and a daycare center. Agriculture, particularly corn and other grains and cotton, supplied the area's financial base until the Grand River Dam was built between 1937 and 1939. Since the creation of Grand Lake, tourism and lake-related businesses have dominated the economy. In 1980 the census reported 326 residents. At the end of the twentieth century businesses located in or near Ketchum included Arrowhead Yacht Club and Marina, Snug Harbor Marina, Port Carlos, Paradise Cove Marine Resort, Pelican Landing, and Cherokee Yacht Club, as well as restaurants, motels, service stations, and convenience stores. One new enterprise was Kannon Motorcycles Incorporated, builders of custom-made V-8 and V-6 motorcycles. A vineyard operates at the south end of town. Ketchum schools accommodated nearly 450 students and comprised the second largest school system in the county. In 1974 a city hall was built, and a new post office was completed in 1984.

Located in south-central Craig County and its seat of government, Vinita is approximately sixty miles northeast of Tulsa and sixty miles southwest of Joplin, Missouri. U.S. Highways 60 and 69, and State Highways 2 and 66 intersect at Vinita, and Interstate Highway 44, the Will Rogers Turnpike, passes along the city's east side. Two major railroads, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe and the Union Pacific, also cross in Vinita. Vinita's original site was about two miles south of the present town, on the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway (Katy, now the Union Pacific) and within the Cherokee Nation's Cooweescoowee District. Elias C. Boudinot founded the town and named it for his friend, sculptor Vinnie Reams. However, Johnson Thompson and other Cherokees persuaded the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad (now the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad) to reroute their tracks north to cross the Katy's at the town's present location, at the time called "the Junction" or "Downingville." Boudinot managed to later change the name to Vinita. In 1872 the sale of lots began. Vinita was the second Cherokee town to incorporate under a law passed by the Cherokee Council. In 1898, after the United States passed the Curtis Act, which abolished tribal courts, Vinita incorporated under Arkansas law, which the U.S. government had extended over the territory. According to a report of the U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the population of Vinita by 1886 had grown to one thousand. In 1892 the First National Bank, one of the oldest banks in Indian Territory, was established. In 1894 Masonic Lodge Number Five was founded. Ranching played an important role in the area's economy. From 1902 to 1907 Vinita served as the seat of the Northern District Federal Court. In 1907, when Craig County was created, Vinita became the governmental center. The first newspaper, the Vinita Indian Chieftain, began publication in 1882, and the Daily Indian Chieftain was added in 1899. The Vinita Leader first appeared in 1895. In 1907 the Vinita Daily Journal began and remained in publication at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Several other newspapers have also served residents. A variety of businesses and facilities provided employment. In 1935 the Grand River Dam Authority established the Pensacola Dam on the Grand River, creating the Grand Lake O' the Cherokees. The Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma Electric Company (KAMO) and Northeast Oklahoma Electric Co-op, which developed as a result of the building of the dam, maintain significant operations in Vinita.

Welch is eight miles south of the Kansas state line, eighteen miles north of Vinita, and thirteen miles west of Miami. The second-largest town in Craig County, Welch was established circa 1888 in the Cherokee Nation by D. B. Nigh, who leased the property from Frank Craig. The Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway (Katy) came through the area in 1871, and in 1891 the railroad built a switch on Nigh's property, providing a shipping point for local hay and grain. Originally, the Katy had designated a townsite farther north, about halfway between present Welch and the Russell Creek switch. However, a community emerged by 1889 at the present location and was named to honor Katy official A. L. Welch. In 1902 the townsite was fully approved, and it incorporated in 1909. The first post office was established in 1892, with Benjamin Brookshire as postmaster. The population reached 334 in 1900 and climbed to 696 by 1920. In 1902 the Welch Watchman newspaper was established. It was published under that name and also as the Welch American until the mid-1960s. In 1889 a joint-stock company established the first school. The town purchased it in 1907, and in 1911 the school graduated its first class. At the beginning of the twenty-first century approximately 380 students attended grades kindergarten through twelve. Welch is one of three Craig County towns that continues to have a bank. Two served the area from 1910 to 1923. The earliest, the People's Bank, was established in 1901, and the Oklahoma State Bank can be traced to 1910. In 1923 they merged to become the Welch State Bank. The town's economic base has always been agriculture. In 1889 Henry Brooks Campbell began buying hay for a Kansas City hay dealer. This enterprise led to the establishment of Campbell Hay and Grain Company, one of the largest hay and grain businesses in northeastern Indian Territory at the time. Grain and coal shipments from Welch grew from two hundred carloads in 1894 to five hundred carloads in 1897. In the 1930s Charley Neill began a cattle-feeding business on his ranch west of town, and in 1960 he and a son founded the Neill Cattle Company. In 1928 the Maxson family started in the cattle auction business and established the Maxson Sales Barn in 1967. After they sold it in 1977, it became the Welch Livestock Auction. Crop production, ranching, and other agricultural interests remain the area's financial anchor. A population of 498 in 1940 increased to 651 in 1970.