79 haunted destinations cataloged across Oklahoma, spanning 39 counties. The collection features museum, cemetery, and outdoor — every listing verified with family ratings, accessibility info, and practical visit logistics.
Enid, OK
Briggs Auditorium was built in 1957-58 at what was then Phillips University in Enid, Oklahoma, and is named for longtime Phillips president Eugene S. Briggs. The campus was acquired by Northern Oklahoma College in 1999 after Phillips's 1998 bankruptcy.
Oklahoma City, OK
Deep Deuce Grill opened in 2002 in the 1926 Haywood Building at 307 NE 2nd Street, in the heart of Oklahoma City's historic Deep Deuce district — the city's center of Black commerce, jazz, and culture during segregation. Dr. William Lewis Haywood, the first Black physician on faculty at University Hospital, purchased the building in 1938 and operated a clinic from its second floor. The building retains pews from the burned Calvary Baptist Church and the original red clinic door.
Oklahoma City, OK
Built in 1903 for Oklahoma City pioneer businessman Henry Overholser and his wife Anna Ione Murphy Overholser, this Chateauesque-style mansion is widely considered the city's first mansion. The home anchored what became the Heritage Hills neighborhood and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. It has operated as a house museum since the early 1970s and is managed today by Preservation Oklahoma.
Tulsa, OK
The Italian Renaissance villa at 2435 S Peoria Avenue was designed by Tulsa architect Noble B. Flemming for oil-field equipment magnate David R. Travis (originally David Rabinowitz), with construction beginning 1919 and completion in 1921. J. Arthur Hull purchased the home and surrounding ten acres in 1923; the Snedden family bought it from the Hulls for $25,000 on January 5, 1932. Oilman William G. Skelly purchased it in October 1950 without occupying it, and the City of Tulsa acquired the property on October 18, 1954, for $85,000. It has housed the Tulsa Garden Center within Woodward Park ever since.
Aerial survey · USDA NAIPMuskogee, OK
Muskogee, Oklahoma, was founded in 1872 as a railroad town in Indian Territory and served as headquarters of the Union Agency for the Five Civilized Tribes. The surrounding area was shaped by the Trail of Tears forced-removal routes of the 1830s.
Aerial survey · USDA NAIPBartlesville, OK
Jesse Creek Cemetery (also spelled Jessie Creek) is a small abandoned cemetery off County Road 2700 south of Bartlesville, in Washington County, Oklahoma. The cemetery is set back into the edge of the woods adjacent to a closed lawn and landscape business, and is hard to spot from the road. Available documentation is limited to community paranormal aggregators and local Oklahoma folklore sites.
Tulsa, OK
Tulsa Theater, formerly known as Brady Theater, is a historic performing arts venue completed in 1914. Designed by the architectural firm Rose and Peterson, the building served as a municipal auditorium and convention hall. It was renamed Tulsa Theater in 2019 after the previous namesake, W. Tate Brady, was revealed to have Ku Klux Klan affiliations.
Tulsa, OK
Cain's Ballroom was built in 1924 by Tulsa businessman W. Tate Brady as a private garage for his automobile collection. In 1930 Madison W. 'Daddy' Cain purchased the building and opened Cain's Dance Academy, a 'dime-a-dance' venue. From 1935 to 1942 it served as the home base of Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, where western swing was popularized via daily live KVOO radio broadcasts. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.
Tulsa, OK
The original sandstone home at the heart of what is now the Gilcrease Museum was built in 1913 by Tulsa attorney Flower Nelson on a 90-acre parcel he had purchased in 1909 from the Mackey family. Oilman and art collector Thomas Gilcrease (1890-1962), a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, briefly used the home as an orphanage for Indigenous children starting in 1943 before moving in himself in 1949. He willed the home and collection to the city of Tulsa, which has operated it as the Gilcrease Museum ever since.
Tulsa, OK
On May 31–June 1, 1921, a white mob attacked and destroyed the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma — then known as 'Black Wall Street' for its concentration of Black-owned businesses and professional institutions. An estimated 75–300 Black residents were killed and 35 city blocks were razed in one of the most destructive acts of racial violence in American history. The Greenwood Rising History Center opened on the centennial of the massacre in 2021, anchoring an effort to document, preserve, and commemorate the district and its history.
Tulsa, OK
The Gypsy Coffee House occupies a 1906 building originally constructed as headquarters for the Gypsy Oil Company in Tulsa's Brady Arts District. After the oil company's departure the building sat vacant for approximately 50 years before reopening as a coffee house in 2000.
Tulsa, OK
In April 1944, Tulsa police discovered that Carolann Smith, 51, had held two young women — Virginia Evans and Willetta Horner — in conditions of domestic enslavement for approximately seven years at 10 E. 21st St. Smith used apparent psychological manipulation to convince the women to surrender their wages while they lived in impoverished conditions; a small casket containing dog remains was found buried in the backyard. Smith was convicted of suborning perjury and served one year in prison. The duplex was demolished in 1984.
Tulsa, OK
Mohawk Park was created in 1924 as part of Tulsa's infrastructure expansion and became home to Mohawk Golf Course in 1934, originally 18 holes later expanded to 36. The 3,300-acre park is one of the largest municipal parks in the United States and contains the Tulsa Zoo, Oxley Nature Center, and a lake.
Tulsa, OK
Mohawk Park was established in 1924 as an outgrowth of the Spavinaw Water Project that brought water to Tulsa. Federal New Deal programs developed it through the 1930s into a 3,300-acre complex containing the Tulsa Zoo, Mohawk Golf Course (1934), a recreation lake, and what would become the 804-acre Oxley Nature Center.
Tulsa, OK
Theatre Tulsa (founded as the Tulsa Little Theater in 1922) purchased land at 15th Street and South Delaware Avenue in 1929 and completed its permanent building in 1932. The theater was designed in an art nouveau / art-style mode and served as Tulsa's premier community-theater home for sixty years. The building later became known as the Delaware Playhouse and underwent a 2004 restoration; it operates today as the Tulsa Little Theatre, hosting events and productions.
Guthrie, OK
The Blue Belle Saloon opened in 1889 — the same year Oklahoma Territory was settled — making it one of the oldest commercial establishments in Guthrie. A historical marker confirms its founding by John Selstrom and Jack Tearney, its operation as a brothel by Madame Miss Lizzie, and that future Western film star Tom Mix worked there as a bartender. Temple Houston, son of Sam Houston and noted frontier lawyer, was a regular patron.
Guthrie, OK
The First Territorial Prison, known locally as the Black Jail, was built in 1892 at 200 North Noble Avenue in Guthrie — the first federal prison constructed in the American Midwest. Its 18-inch limestone and brick walls were designed to hold 90 inmates, including a basement solitary confinement block. Bill Doolin and 13 fellow outlaws escaped in 1896. The structure later served as a Nazarene church and then as the headquarters of a religious group called the Samaritan Foundation before being condemned.
Guthrie, OK
The Logan County Jail at 216 S Broad Street in Guthrie, Oklahoma, has operated as a detention facility since 1898, making it one of the oldest continuously used jails in the region. Built of thick dark limestone and brick, it once held famous Old West outlaws including the Dalton Gang and Bill Doolin. Guthrie itself was Oklahoma's first territorial and state capital.
Guthrie, OK
The building at 2000 W Warner Avenue in Guthrie began as a Methodist Episcopal hospital project in 1925, halted by the Great Depression. A Guthrie nonprofit completed it in 1932 as Cimarron Valley Wesley Hospital; the Benedictine Sisters bought it in 1946 and finished construction. It became Alverno Heights Hospital under the Sisters of St. Francis in 1964, was renamed Logan County Memorial Hospital in 1974, deeded to Logan County in 1977, and replaced by a new facility in 1978. The five-story building then stood abandoned for roughly four decades before being redeveloped around 2020 into the Villas of Benedictine Pointe, an affordable senior-living community.
Guthrie, OK
Built in 1903 by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, the Guthrie station served as a primary passenger and freight terminal when Guthrie was Oklahoma's territorial and first state capital. At its peak it processed up to 40 trains per day. The depot closed in 1979 and was later converted to museum use; it is listed on the Wikipedia article for Guthrie Station.
Guthrie, OK
The Pollard Theatre building at 1214 Division Street was constructed in 1901 as Patterson Furniture, which also operated a funeral parlor on the premises. George Pollard purchased the property in 1919 and converted it to a vaudeville house; it now operates as a nonprofit live-performance theater. The venue's own website confirms the 1901 construction date, the furniture and funeral origins, and the 1919 vaudeville conversion.
Guthrie, OK
The Stone Lion Inn was constructed in 1907 for the Houghton family and served as a private residence before being converted into a funeral home in the 1920s. It later became a bed and breakfast and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of Guthrie's Victorian streetscape.
Oklahoma City, OK
Founded in 1910, Cattlemen's Steakhouse is Oklahoma City's oldest continuously operating restaurant, anchoring the historic Stockyards City district. Its most retold story is the 1945 Christmas Eve craps game at the Biltmore Hotel in which owner Hank Frey lost the restaurant to Gene Wade. Wade and his father then renovated the building and ran it around the clock. Current owner Dick Stubbs acquired the business from the Wades in 1990.
Oklahoma City, OK
The building at 1226 NE 63rd Street in Oklahoma City was constructed around 1938 as the Kentucky Club, a Prohibition-era speakeasy, dance hall, gambling den, and bordello positioned far enough from the city center to operate outside immediate law enforcement reach. The County Line Barbeque occupied it until closing in 2010; Gabriella's Italian Grill subsequently operated in the space before the building became vacant. The site has been listed for commercial lease since at least 2024.
Oklahoma City, OK
The Skirvin opened September 26, 1911 as Oklahoma City's premier hotel, built by oilman W.B. Skirvin. After decades of decline it closed in 1988, was meticulously restored, and reopened in 2007 as the Skirvin Hilton.
Aerial survey · USDA NAIPOklahoma City, OK
Kitchen Lake Bridge sits on a rural lane south of Oklahoma City near the corner of Air Depot Boulevard and SE 119th Street. A chimney and fireplace foundation remain from a house that once stood near the bridge. The witch-house legend appears to date from the 1960s; local researchers have not located any newspaper record of a fatal fire that would anchor the story.
Oklahoma City, OK
At 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995, a truck bomb detonated beneath the north face of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring 684 more. The building was demolished in May 1995. The Oklahoma City National Memorial was dedicated on the fifth anniversary of the bombing in 2000, occupying the former footprint of the building and the adjacent streets.
Oklahoma City, OK
At 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh detonated a truck bomb outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, killing 168 people — including 19 children in the building's day-care center — and injuring more than 680 others. It was the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in United States history. McVeigh was arrested the same day on an unrelated traffic stop, convicted of murder and conspiracy, and executed on June 11, 2001.
Oklahoma City, OK
The Skirvin Hotel opened September 26, 1911, founded by Oklahoma City oil and land developer William Balser Skirvin. Oklahoma City's oldest operating hotel, the 13-story, 225-room Hilton-branded property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It closed in 1988 due to low occupancy and remained vacant for 19 years before a $51 million renovation restored it in 2007; a further $22 million renovation was completed in 2025.
Enid, OK
Clay Hall was designed in 1941 by architect Roy W. Shaw as the women's dormitory for Phillips University, a Disciples of Christ institution in Enid. The building was condemned by the state in the early 1980s, after which it sat vacant for a period before being placed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was subsequently converted into senior apartments.
Aerial survey · USDA NAIPEnid, OK
Enid Cemetery is among the oldest municipal cemeteries in Oklahoma, established in the years following the 1893 Cherokee Strip Land Run that founded Enid. It holds the graves of Civil War veterans, Cherokee Strip-era settlers, and pioneers from the region's formative decades. A notable marker in the cemetery bears the inscription 'Murdered by Human Wolves,' placed by the family of a woman who died following a botched abortion procedure — a rare example of explicit cause-of-death language on an Oklahoma gravestone.
Enid, OK
The Grand Avenue Hotel was built in 1898 in Enid, Oklahoma. On January 13, 1903, a man registered as David E. George died there by strychnine poisoning — and before dying, reportedly confessed to being John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln's assassin, who had supposedly survived the 1865 manhunt. The Oklahoma Historical Society documents the episode, and George's body was later embalmed and put on public display as part of a traveling exhibit.
Aerial survey · USDA NAIPEnid, OK
The Enid Masonic Temple was built in 1921 at 303 W. Broadway in downtown Enid. According to Wikipedia, the Masonic operations closed abruptly in 1946 and the upper floors remained largely vacant thereafter. The building, also known as the Knox Building, has been documented as a location of unexplained phenomena connected to the death of an elevator repairman.
Enid, OK
The building at 200 E Maple Ave was constructed in 1920 as Alton's Mercantile, a dry-goods business operated by Harry Alton. In 1924, Alton died on the premises by a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The building was subsequently used for various commercial purposes before being converted into Leonardo's Discovery Warehouse, a hands-on children's science and discovery museum that operates there today.
Enid, OK
The Billings Theatre at 221 N. Independence in Enid was designed in 1924 by the Boller Brothers, the Kansas City firm responsible for many of the great movie palaces of the era. The theater was built for vaudeville and is connected to the adjacent 1920 Alton Mercantile Company building. Harry Alton, the mercantile owner, died in 1924. The complex later became home to the Gaslight Players community theater.
Stillwater, OK
The Atherton Hotel opened in 1950 as the Union Club Hotel on the Oklahoma State University campus in Stillwater. It is a Historic Hotels of America member property and sits adjacent to Gallagher-Iba Arena. The hotel has been part of OSU campus life for more than seven decades, hosting visiting academics, athletic teams, and university guests.
Stillwater, OK
Edmon Low Library was built in 1953 and has served as Oklahoma State University's main research library for more than seven decades. Named for Edmon Low, OSU's head librarian from 1919 to 1947, it is the central academic library for one of Oklahoma's largest universities. The library itself archived staff ghost reports on its official website, lending unusual institutional weight to its paranormal reputation.
Stillwater, OK
Constructed in 1894, Old Central was the first permanent structure built on the campus of what is now Oklahoma State University. The Romanesque Revival brick building survived multiple fires and was condemned by the state in 1921, yet remained standing and eventually underwent restoration. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and serves today as an event and meeting venue on campus.
Stillwater, OK
Oklahoma State University's campus in Stillwater carries a long tradition of student-collected ghost lore tied to its oldest buildings, including Old Central (1895) and Edmon Low Library.
Lawton, OK
Fort Sill is an active U.S. Army post in southwest Oklahoma, established in 1869 during the Indian Wars. From 1894 onward it was the final imprisonment site of the Chiricahua Apache, including Geronimo, who is buried in the Apache Prisoner-of-War Cemetery on post.
Lawton, OK
Lake Jed Johnson is a 57.5-acre reservoir in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Comanche County, Oklahoma, created in 1940 by the construction of a dam across Blue Beaver Creek. The lake and adjacent stone observation tower — built in 1941 by the Civilian Conservation Corps — are named for Jed Johnson (1888-1963), a 10-term Oklahoma congressman who championed the refuge's development.
Aerial survey · USDA NAIPLawton, OK
The Parallel Forest was created in 1912 as a U.S. government experiment to study whether controlled reforestation could combat erosion in the Wichita Mountains — a research precursor to the broader Dust Bowl conservation efforts that would follow two decades later. More than 20,000 eastern red cedar trees were planted at precisely six-foot intervals across sixteen acres in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.
Norman, OK
Ellison Hall opened in 1928 as Hygeia Hall, the University of Oklahoma's central campus hospital with an operating suite and isolation wards. It served the university community through a period when the campus lacked a nearby major hospital. The building was later renamed Ellison Hall and repurposed for administrative and other university uses.
Norman, OK
The University of Oklahoma's Norman campus, founded in 1892, contains numerous historic buildings that have accumulated documented paranormal traditions, studied and published by OU instructor Jeff Provine.
Norman, OK
The Sooner Theatre opened in 1929 as Norman's first sound cinema, built to capitalize on the city's growth as a university town. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 and has been continuously operated as a performing-arts venue, making it the oldest active theater in Norman. Cinema Treasures documents its restoration to its 1930s appearance.
Aerial survey · USDA NAIPAda, OK
The Kalihoma (also spelled Kullihoma) grounds near Ada, Oklahoma are part of the Chickasaw Nation's historic territory in Pontotoc County. The road connecting Highway 48 to Highway 1 through the reservation has accumulated a local legend of a phantom vehicle over several decades, with accounts dating at least to the late 1990s.
Ada, OK
Kullihoma — meaning 'Red Springs' in the Chickasaw language, referencing the reddish waters that preceded storms — was established as a Chickasaw Nation trust property following the Indian Welfare Act of 1936. The original parcel of over 146 acres expanded to more than 1,961 acres by 2011 and serves as a center for Chickasaw cultural practice, hosting stomp dancing and traditional activities that trace their roots to the 1800s.
Aerial survey · USDA NAIPBartlesville, OK
White Rose Cemetery is the principal municipal burial ground for Bartlesville, Oklahoma, with more than 12,000 interments. Its most architecturally distinctive feature is the 15,000-square-foot Greek Neoclassical mausoleum built by merchant Hugh Bryant, featuring white marble interiors and bronze gates. The cemetery is maintained by the City of Bartlesville.
Bartlesville, OK
Frank Phillips, co-founder of Phillips Petroleum, established Woolaroc in 1925 as a personal retreat on 3,700 acres of rolling Oklahoma countryside. The name combines the first syllables of Woods, Lakes, and Rocks — the three features that Phillips prized most about the land. After his death in 1950, the ranch and its substantial art and artifact collections were opened to the public as a museum and wildlife preserve.
Konawa, OK
Konawa Cemetery, east of Konawa in Seminole County, holds the grave of Katherine Ann Cross (March 13, 1899 - October 10, 1917), whose headstone bears Oklahoma's most famous epitaph: 'Murdered by human wolves.' Cross, three months pregnant, is believed to have died from a botched abortion. A Konawa physician, Dr. A.H. Yates, was charged in connection with the deaths of Cross and another young woman; he was acquitted in the related case, and the charge tied to Cross was never brought to trial. Her family carved the epitaph to express their belief about who was responsible.
Aerial survey · USDA NAIPKonawa, OK
Sacred Heart Mission was founded in 1877 by Father Isidore Robot, O.S.B., a French Benedictine monk who had entered Indian Territory in 1875 and settled among the Citizen Band Potawatomi in the southeast corner of present Pottawatomie County. By 1880 the mission included a monastery, schools for Native American boys and girls, a technical institute, and a seminary; a large church followed in 1892 and the mission attained abbey status in 1896. A catastrophic fire destroyed most of the complex on the night of January 14-15, 1901. Though rebuilt, the community gradually relocated north - founding St. Gregory's College at Shawnee in 1915 and moving the abbey seat there in 1929. Sacred Heart Priory closed in 1955 and most buildings were razed; the site, cemeteries, and remaining structures survive as a historic landmark.
Sand Springs, OK
Discoveryland Amphitheater opened in 1976 as a 2,000-seat outdoor venue west of Tulsa in Sand Springs, Oklahoma. From 1977 to 2011 it served as the official home of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical 'Oklahoma!' The venue closed in 2014 and was reopened in 2019 as Discoveryland Ranch, a multi-use event property.
Aerial survey · USDA NAIPSand Springs, OK
Postoak Cemetery, on private land just outside Sand Springs in Tulsa County, was established in 1886 and is one of the area's oldest burial grounds. It is named for the Postoak family: Phoebe Postoak, who died November 22, 1886, at age 15, is believed to be the first person buried there, and her parents Taylor Postoak (d. 1891) and Mariah 'Molea' Fisher Postoak (d. 1907) are buried there as well. The cemetery contains roughly 143 marked graves, with burials peaking in the 1930s and the most recent in 1998. The land is held today by Lyntab 3 LP.
Alva, OK
The museum building was constructed in 1932 as the Alva General Hospital and operated as a hospital until 1972. The Morton Share Trust donated the building to the Cherokee Strip Museum Association in 1975, and the museum reopened in its current form in 1976. The collection had previously been housed at Northwestern State College (1961) and the Alva City Library (1965).
Aerial survey · USDA NAIPBlanchard, OK
Blanchard Cemetery was established in 1917 on a roughly twenty-acre lot just off State Highway 76 in Blanchard, McClain County, Oklahoma. It remains an active cemetery with monthly business meetings, ongoing maintenance, and new burials. Despite ranking on numerous lists of Oklahoma's most haunted places, there is no documented historical tragedy or origin event tied to its paranormal reputation — it appears to have simply served as the resting place for nearby town residents.
Broken Bow, OK
The Broken Bow Public Library is housed in the historic former Broken Bow High School building, located in McCurtain County in southeastern Oklahoma. The building was donated to the community by a group of Broken Bow businessmen for conversion into the public library. Broken Bow sits in central McCurtain County, approximately 12 miles north-northeast of Idabel.
Aerial survey · USDA NAIPCatoosa, OK
Timber Ridge Cemetery is a small family cemetery at 30356 S. 4130 Road near Catoosa, Oklahoma, six miles east of town off Highway 412. Find a Grave documents the site, and Catoosa-area sources describe it as an active family burial ground.
Checotah, OK
The Battle of Honey Springs on July 17, 1863 was the largest Civil War engagement fought in Indian Territory and a pivotal moment in the war's western theater. Union forces under Major General James Blunt defeated a Confederate army composed largely of Native American soldiers from ten tribal nations — Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, and others — in a battle that also saw the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry fight alongside white Union troops for the first time in the region. The battle reflected the deep divisions within tribal nations over Civil War allegiances, functioning as a civil war within the larger conflict. The Oklahoma Historical Society manages the 1,100-acre site with a 2022 visitor center and six interpretive trails.
Cheyenne, OK
Before dawn on November 27, 1868, Lt. Col. George Custer led the 7th U.S. Cavalry in a four-column surprise attack on the Southern Cheyenne village of Peace Chief Black Kettle along the Washita River. Black Kettle — a consistent advocate for peace who had survived the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre — was killed alongside his wife and over 100 other villagers, including women and children. Cheyenne and tribal historians classify the attack as a massacre of a peaceful encampment. The NPS site preserves 1,578 acres of the river valley and presents the Cheyenne perspective alongside military accounts.
Dewey, OK
Jacob H. Bartles, the trading-post merchant for whom the city of Bartlesville was named, began constructing the Victorian-era Grand Avenue Hotel in Dewey in 1899 and completed it in 1900. The building served as Washington County's premier lodging and dining establishment for decades, catering to the cowboys, oilmen, and travelers passing through the territory and early statehood years.
Aerial survey · USDA NAIPDrummond, OK
Imo Cemetery is a small rural burial ground in Drummond, Garfield County, Oklahoma, with 50 documented memorials and a history rooted in the homesteading families who settled the Cherokee Outlet after the 1893 land run. The cemetery is maintained on a volunteer basis.
Durant, OK
Fort Washita was established in 1842 by the United States Army to protect the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations following their forced relocation to Indian Territory. The post operated until 1865, when it was abandoned during the Civil War. The Oklahoma Historical Society acquired the site in 1962, and it is now managed by the Chickasaw Nation.
El Reno, OK
Fort Reno was established in 1874 to provide military presence near the Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency during the period of conflict following the Red River War. The fort served active cavalry duty through 1907, hosting Buffalo Soldiers units for a significant portion of its tenure. During World War II the army reactivated the site as a prisoner-of-war camp, incarcerating more than 1,300 German and Italian POWs. A German POW cemetery on the grounds holds the remains of prisoners who died in captivity.
Aerial survey · USDA NAIPHammon, OK
Kiowa Cemetery was established in March 1899 when homesteader George Lacey designated the southeast corner of his Roger Mills County property for community burial after infant Tommy Hill's death. Named for the Big and Little Kiowa Creeks flanking the site, the cemetery has always accepted all denominations free of charge and is maintained today under a trust fund.
Idabel, OK
Kulli Tuklo United Methodist Church, located approximately seven miles southeast of Idabel in McCurtain County, is one of the oldest Choctaw congregations in the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference. The settlement was established in the late 1830s when Choctaw people removed from Mississippi during the Trail of Tears founded a community around two sandy springs, naming the location 'Kvlli Tuklo' — meaning Two Springs in the Choctaw language.
Aerial survey · USDA NAIPKellyville, OK
Kellyville, in Creek County south of Tulsa along old Route 66, is home to what locals call the 'original' Oklahoma Cry Baby Bridge. The legend was set at a bridge over Polecat Creek along Slick Road south of town. The original bridge no longer stands and the road has been re-routed. Kellyville is widely cited as the source of the legend that later spread to Kiefer, Schulter, Catoosa, and other Oklahoma towns.
Aerial survey · USDA NAIPKeys, OK
Keys Elementary School is part of Keys Public Schools, a PK-12 district serving the rural Cherokee County area near Lake Tenkiller in eastern Oklahoma. The school serves a predominantly Cherokee Nation community; the school mascot, the Keys Cougars, reflects the local identity. The Keys area has a long history of Cherokee settlement following removal from the southeastern United States in the 1830s.
Millerton, OK
Wheelock Academy, about three miles east of Millerton in McCurtain County, Oklahoma, originated in 1832 when missionary Alfred Wright established a Choctaw mission station, naming it for Dartmouth founder Eleazar Wheelock. It became the Choctaw Nation's first national academy in 1842 and operated as a boarding school and orphanage for Choctaw girls until 1955. It is a National Historic Landmark now owned by the Choctaw Nation.
Pawnee, OK
Pawnee Bill Ranch at 1141 Pawnee Bill Road in Pawnee, Oklahoma preserves the 500-acre estate of Gordon W. 'Pawnee Bill' Lillie, a Wild West entertainer who operated shows alongside Buffalo Bill Cody in the early 20th century. The 1910 mansion, fully furnished with original Lillie family belongings, is operated by the Oklahoma Historical Society and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Picher, OK
Picher was founded during the Tri-State lead-zinc mining boom of the 1910s and became one of the most productive mining districts in American history, supplying ore for bullets and bombs through both World Wars. Decades of unregulated extraction left the town sitting on a honeycomb of undermined land and surrounded by mountains of toxic chat. A 1994 federal study found 34 percent of Picher's children had elevated blood lead levels. The town was evacuated over the following decade and dissolved as a municipality in 2013.
Rose, OK
The Saline Courthouse, built in 1884 near present-day Rose in Delaware County, is the only one of the nine original Cherokee Nation district courthouses still standing. It served the Saline District until the Cherokee court system was dissolved under the federal Curtis Act around 1898-1902, after which it passed through private ownership before the Cherokee Nation reacquired it. Restoration was completed in 2019 and it now operates as the Saline Courthouse Museum under Cherokee Nation Cultural Tourism.
Aerial survey · USDA NAIPShawnee, OK
Shawnee Twin Lakes are a pair of City of Shawnee water-supply reservoirs in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma. Lake Number 1 was completed in 1935 and Lake Number 2 in 1960, with a connecting canal opened in 1962. The system supports municipal water supply and public recreation seven miles west of Shawnee.
Aerial survey · USDA NAIPSkiatook, OK
Hillside Mission Cemetery began in 1882 in conjunction with a Quaker-founded Indian Mission near Skiatook, Oklahoma, in Tulsa County. It holds burials from the late 1800s and early 1900s and is marked as a historic site. Over time it became locally famous for a grave reputed to belong to a witch.
Sulphur, OK
Veterans Lake is a 67-acre reservoir in Murray County, Oklahoma, constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps and Public Works Administration as a Great Depression-era public works project. The lake was dedicated to American war veterans in 1933 and was incorporated into Chickasaw National Recreation Area in 1983.
Aerial survey · USDA NAIPTahlequah, OK
The Cherokee County Courthouse in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, occupies a building that previously served as the city hospital before being remodeled in 1978-79 to house the county courts and city hall. The structure is a two-story brick and concrete building on a T-shaped plan in the center of Tahlequah, which served as the historic capital of the Cherokee Nation.
Talihina, OK
The Eastern Oklahoma Tuberculosis Sanatorium was built between 1915 and 1921 in the Kiamichi Mountains specifically to treat Choctaw and Chickasaw tribal members suffering from tuberculosis. The federal government constructed the facility in response to catastrophic TB rates in those communities following allotment-era dispossession. A 65-bed children's building, the Harper Building, was added in 1930. Oral accounts document that Indigenous patients received lung-collapse surgical procedures that were performed without anesthesia. The original buildings remain on the campus, which now operates as a VA hospital.
Aerial survey · USDA NAIPThackerville, OK
Brown Springs Cemetery is an abandoned, largely unmarked burial ground located on a steep hilltop in Love County near Thackerville, Oklahoma, about five miles north of the Texas state line. The cemetery's dark history involves outlaws and bodies from violent crimes, disposed in the springs as clandestine burial sites. The area has been a hiding place for criminals and a dumping ground for murdered individuals for well over a century.
Waynoka, OK
The Eastman Hotel — originally the Campbell Hotel — was built in Waynoka, Oklahoma, to serve passengers of Transcontinental Air Transport, the first commercial transcontinental airline. Charles Lindbergh selected Waynoka as the airline's Oklahoma stop in 1929. The hotel is no longer in operation, but the building remains in Waynoka.
Wynnewood, OK
The Eskridge Hotel was built in 1907 — the year of Oklahoma statehood — by traveling cotton salesman Pinckney Reid Eskridge, who wanted a comfortable stop on the Santa Fe Railroad route between Oklahoma City and Dallas. The thirty-room hotel became famous for its food, especially chicken dinners, and operated until 1970. In 1973 the Wynnewood Historical Society bought the building and turned it into a museum; it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.