Watch List

Boley Historic District, Boley:

 Boley was an all-black town in central Okfuskee County, founded as a camp for railroad construction workers. It was touted by T.M. Haynes through a large scale advertising campaign as a safe haven from oppression when it was founded in 1903. African Americans from all over the southern and southeastern United States came to escape racial tension, and the town was formally dedicated in September of 1904. Quickly the town became a thriving and prosperous place, with 5 hotels, 7 restaurants, 4 cotton gins, 3 drug stores, 4 department stores, a Masonic Temple that brought African Americans from across the entire state, and many other businesses. Around 1911 the population was believed to be around 4,000, and it was possibly the largest all-black town in America. Agricultural difficulty and the Depression in the 1920’s and 1930’s halted this community growth, and the population declined.

 All that remains today are several buildings from the old business district, and many of them are in disrepair. The town’s population is well under 1,000. While this district was listed on the NRHP and as a National Historic Landmark in 1975, there is still little attention being paid to saving the rich history of a unique town and culture.

Wheelock Academy, McCurtain County:

Founded in 1832 by missionaries Reverend Alfred Wright and his wife who had traveled west with a group of Choctaws, this became the first National Choctaw Academy under the Choctaw National Education Act in 1842. Unlike many other Indian schools during that time, this academy was run by the tribe, and did not feature imposed assimilation into American “mainstream” culture. A portion of the tuition was expected in cooperative style labor; however the focus was absolutely education and Bible study for the young women. 

Wheelock began as a day school, but within 10 years was a boarding school for girls. It was named for Eleazar Wheelock, a noted Presbyterian who served as the first President and founder of Moor’s Indian School, which would later be known as Dartmouth College, and friend of Reverend Wright. Because Wright had ties to Ivy League educational institutions, and because of generous sponsorship from the Nation, Wheelock was able to employ teachers and faculty from many Ivy League schools. The Councils even helped finance college education for the promising graduates of the Academy. This dedication to sophisticated education truly created upward mobility for young Choctaw ladies to succeed in America. Wheelock was operated until 1955, when the school merged with Jones Academy near Hartshorne. 

Wheelock was added to the NRHP in 1966, and was determined to be a National Historic Landmark in 1965. Today, one of the six buildings that is still standing, Leflore Hall, houses a museum. But years of neglect and vegetation growth have endangered the many properties on the site, and though awareness is greater today than before, there is still much work to be done to save this landmark. 

Chilocco Indian School, Kay County:

Established in 1884 and built of locally quarried limestone, this residential Native American school focused on agriculture, numerous vocations (for boys), home economics (for girls) and most specifically assimilating Native American youth into “mainstream” American culture. It was run as a military regime, with very strict rules and schedules. At its height, the Chilocco School housed around 1,000 students, from over 120 tribes across the country. One student that attended Chilocco was none other than Baldwin Parker (son of Comanche leader Quanah Parker); they chose Chilocco over another larger boarding school in Pennsylvania because of its the modern amenities and beautiful campus. In the 1970s, a changing political tide away from forced assimilation, combined with budget constraints and declining enrollment, signaled the close of the campus; its doors closed in 1980.  The school temporarily gained notoriety when it housed a Scientology based drug rehab center debuted by celebrity Kirstie Alley in the 1990’s, but has generally been vacant since 1980.  

In 2007 the National Congress of American Indians passed a resolution stating that “if there was ever a place in America where so many tribes and nations could call common ground, Chilocco was that place.”  Despite its negative associations with forced assimilation, Chilocco remains a sentimental location for alumni of the school; it brought together a variety of Native American children who shared memories and experiences during the school’s run.  Today, portions of the campus are being used by OSU’s University Multi-Specialist Lab “working to carry out various contractual activities,” which has brought limited utility service back to Chilocco, as well as 24-hour security and other upcoming infrastructural improvements.

Chilocco has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2006, and its nomination as a National Historic Landmark, prepared as a partnership between Preservation Oklahoma staff, board members, and volunteers, the Oklahoma State Historic Preservation Office, Tribes affiliated with the school, and others, is pending with the National Parks Service. A non-profit organization (Chilocco Benefit Association) has been established to raise the estimated 4.3 million dollars needed to stabilize the buildings and establish programs on-site. Still, this is only a very small step in rehabilitating this landmark of Native American education. Historic photographs from Chilocco’s prime, compared to the photographs of today’s deterioration, such as the crumbling remains of Haworth Hall, reveal that much great attention is needed to prevent the loss of this site.

Rural Cemeteries Statewide:

Individual and collective burial places can reflect and represent in important ways the cultural values and practices of the past that help instruct us about who we are as a people. Yet for profoundly personal reasons, familial and cultural descendants of the interred often view graves and cemeteries with a sense of reverence and devout sentiment that can overshadow objective evaluation. Therefore, cemeteries and graves are among those properties that ordinarily are not considered eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places unless they meet special requirements for the source of their significance.  For example, the Silver City Cemetery, located north of Tuttle in Grady County, recently was listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its associations with the early settlement of Grady County. 

Currently, the Oklahoma State Historic Preservation Office has documentation for about 250 of these cemeteries, with information about their ages and cultural affiliations. However, this is only a small portion of the total.  With or without documentation, the threats of loss to deterioration and overgrowth, redevelopment, or insensitive land use practices are ever present.  For example, the Jack Brown Cemetery (named for the first Chickasaw freedman sharecropper in Oklahoma) in McClain County almost has been lost to overgrowth. The cemetery is no longer in use, but has four marked, and possibly as many as 50 unmarked graves.  Local supporters work diligently to maintain the cemetery and to keep memories of it alive, but only so much can be done with limited resources.  Education and maintenance must be practiced in order to keep these delicate resources safe.