Oklahoma Ghost Towns

16. Ingalls (Payne County)
The OK Hotel at Ingalls was the headquarters of the Doolin outlaw gang, and the town is remembered for a famous shootout in 1893 between gang members and a group of lawmenl Red Lucas, a lawman unknown to the gang, penetrated the group by playing poker with several members of the gang at the hotel. With help from three covered wagonloads of U.S. marshals, Lucas made plans to waylay the group. But a small boy alerted the outlaws and the shootout began. In a short but vicious battle, several citizens were wounded and three marshals were killed. During the battle, the town's doctors tended to the wounded of both sides. The battle effectively broke up the Doolin gang, though some of the outlaws escaped, they were later killed or apprehended. A monument to the slain marshals marks the site, located east of Stillwater off SH-51.

17. Jumbo (Pusb_mataha County)
A large vein of asphalt was discovered in the vicinity in the late 1880s, and by 1900 four shaft mines and three strip mines had opened. In its heyday the town had about 200 residents. The Woodmen of the World built a large lodge hall and were active in community affairs. A fire broke out in a mine shaft in 1905, and tile men escaped by climbing up a ladder one by one and out the air vent. In 1910 an explosion killed 14 miners. In their honor, the Woodmen of the World erected distinctive monuments at their graves. The mines were worked for several more years but closed permanently in 1916. Located northwest of Antlers.

18. Lehigh (Coal County)
Lehigh, named after the coalmining center in Pennsylvania, served for a time as county seat of Coal County (until Coalgate was named by popular vote), and for 50 years its primary industry was coal. The place was founded as a coal camp with tents and shacks in 1880, but a mining disaster at Savanna in 1887 caused the company to move its equipment and 135 houses to Lehigh. The population shot up to 2,000. Shaft and strip mines produced 1,200 tons of high-quality coal per day, and the mine payroll reached $100,000 per month. Three railroads served the town, which had police and fire departments, a water system, an ice plant, a bottling works, and tile Bijou Opera tlouse. The miners were Italian, French, German, Belgian, and Eastern European; the rest of the population included Chickasaws, Choctaws, and Chinese. The cosmopolitan town came to be called the "Cultural Center of Indian Territory." In 1894, Patrick J. Hurley, later U.S. secretary of war and ambassador to China, started working 9-hour days in Mine No. 6 at age 11 for 75 cents a day. Coal declined in importance after 1930, and Lehigh gradually lost population. The rail lines were abandoned by 1956. Located south of Coalgate off US-75.

19. Lugerr (Kiowa County)
When the water level of Lake Altus is Iow, buildings and bridges of drowned Lugert show up along the sou~h.~=st shcre. The village, which began in 1901, was partly destroyed by a tornado in 1912. Some buildings were rebuilt with brick, but the town never grew again. Located south of Lone Wolf off SH-44.

20. Park Hill (Cherokee County)
Founded in 1837, this was the first cultural center of the Cherokee Nation. A school, a mission, and a printing press came early, and in 1847 the Cherokee Female Seminary began. As a publishing center, Park Hill produced millions of pages of religious and secular texts. But the Civil War, despite Chief John Ross's efforts at neutrality, destroyed much of the town and drove many residents north. After the war the town rebuilt, and the seminary reopened in 1871, but repeated fires and a tornado discouraged further attempts. Today the remains of some of the buildings and the restored Murrell Home attract visitors. Located south of Tahlequah off SH-82.