The ghost town of Skedee, Oklahoma
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ก.ย. 2024
- Skedee was one of many communities that sprang up after the 1893 land run. Originally called Lemert, the name was changed when a post office was established in 1902, as the name Lemert was too similar to another town. The name Skedee was taken from Skidi band of the Pawnee tribe.
As with most of the early communities, it's economy was based on agriculture. Competition for survival of these communities was fierce, and Skedee had the fortune of a viable water supply in nearby Crystal creek, which was key for the steam locomotives of the era, so the railroad was routed through the town. Many residents and businesses in nearby communities relocated to Skedee, which caused a mini boom with the arrival of the railroad. The other communities around it dwindled, reverting to scattered farmsteads.
The town was never larger than about 300 residents, but supported several hundred farmers and ranchers in the surrounding area and boasted a fairly large railroad yard for its size. The locomotive shown at 0:44 was the largest in the world at the time. The photo was taken on it's inaugural run to Iowa when it stopped in Skedee.
In addition to the typical businesses, it had a large cotton gin, which operated up until the 1950's. It's first school was a wooden structure built in 1906, but was replaced by a large brick building in 1916.
The 1920's were good for Skedee, it was an agricultural boom time, and the oil boom was in full swing. Though Skedee wasn't located in the oil rich areas, it did benefit indirectly, primarily through money spent by the Osage tribe, who received vast wealth from the oil boom. This growth resulted in building a stand alone high school in 1924, with the original reverting to a grade school.
Skedee was home to Colonel E. Walters, self billed as the best auctioneer in the world. He did have reason for his boasting and though he auctioned everything from hogs to towns sites, his primary fame came from oil lease auctions during the oil . Most notably, oil leases sold for the Osage tribe under the Million Dollar Elm in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, netting record sales and revenue for the tribe. His home in Skedee still stands.
Colonel E. Walters (his actual first name) erected a statue in the center of the town square in 1926 depicting himself and Osage Indian Chief Baconrind shaking hands. The statue was lambasted in the local papers of the time, partially because it was considered self promoting, but primarily because it was considered hideous.
The "square" around the statue is large, even by modern standards. This was necessary due to the popularity of the Pierce Arrow automobile, which the wealthy Osage Indians bought in large numbers. The extra space was needed to turn these rather large cars. At the time, Skedee was home to the largest concentration of Pierce Arrows in the country.
Skedee's decline was typical of many small towns of the era. The economics of the great depression, dust bowl, and farm consolidations started a steady downward spiral. The bank failed in 1931, and the town struggled on through the 1950s, but shrinking populations and new road projects which bypassed the town hastened the process. The cotton gin closed in the late1950s, followed by the post office on August 2nd, 1963 and finally the school in 1967, consolidating with the nearby towns of Ralston and Pawnee.
Crumbling buildings, abandoned houses, and the lonely statue are all that remain of Skedee. In the end, the statue has had the last laugh. The people and newspapers who mocked it are long gone, yet the statue remains, silently standing vigil.
My hometown. Always been proud ta be from Skedee. Greatgrand folks started out there. Was definitely a
unique place to grow up. Spent more
hours than I care to remember sitting
at the statue. The Col. and ole Chief were great listeners .
What a grand childhood you must have had. I envy your memories.
My great grandfather,Joe Esau of the Pawnee tribe,was allotted 640 acres of land by the federal government on the site that became Skedee,Okla.Really enjoyed the video.
Thanks Fay. There was a railroad junction just south of Skedee called the Esau junction. Now I know where the name came from.
Fay could you use some help in reviving the town?
My great grandfather, Yancy Wildman, his wife Maggie, their family and her father settled around Skeedee in the late 1800's. My grandfather was born there in 1894. Great great grandfather Moore was murdered on a riverboat on the Arkansas river north of Skeedee. The family decided to leave there after his death and sold the 8 lots they owned in in Skeedee, moving to Minnesota. We visited Skeedee in 2012 to share a piece of our ancestry, a journey back in time. Well worth the 900 mile drive.
Great piece of history. Was he buried in Skedee?
Oklahoma Ghost Towns Good question! I don't remember seeing a cemetary. We have one photo of the Wildman horse ranch/homestead near Skedee. I assumed he was buried on the ranch. Two men were tried and hanged after the body was found in the river according to a local paper article I found at the Pawnee county courthouse.
In addition to raising horses, Yancy also worked on the railroad and was gone a lot. That may explain why the sole name as seller on the sale of the lots in Skedee was "Maggie Wildman", dated 1896 or 1897 as recorded at the courthouse.
dnl wildman The cemetery is about 2 miles west of Skedee, hidden down a side road. I suspect you are correct as I don't show a listing for any WIldman buried there, I'd love to have a copy of the homestead photo!
Oklahoma Ghost Towns
Oklahoma Ghost Towns
yes. it is off the skedee Blackburn road. one mile west of town
My very first ghost town in Oklahoma to see, just this week. Now that my husband and I are retired, we have taken more of an interest in learning more about this state we have lived in all of our lives. Thank you for all of your videos which will surely help us in our journeys.❤
Skedee suffered a slow death. The decline began with the Great Depression as the town was dependant primarily on agriculture, which took a big hit in that era. New highways bypassed the town and rail service ended, resulting in isolation. The population dropped to the point it could no longer support itself,. The schools were the central point of these small towns, and once they close, the towns seems to lose any hope. The high school closed in 1962, followed by the grade school in 1967.
When main roads, highways, interstates bypass a town, they really struggle. So hard to believe this was once someone’s beloved home and now it lays crumbling away.
Helped build a bridge just outside of town. In 2012, or 2013. Still remember this town, just found some old photos I took. I'm from Iowa. Lived in Kansas at the time. Remember having to out run a bunch of tornados in that area on one of my trips back from there.
very nice to see people talking about there old home town and remembering it and the peoples who lived there.
Skedee was a part of my life as a child I have taken my children there... now I need to take my Grandchildren there.... beautiful film well done
Love old ghost towns and the stories they tell. You did a wonderful job of bringing this one to life.😀
wow this is where I was born 76 years ago and then my Uncle was born there a year later I went back to see where I was born about 40 some years ago but I left there when I was a little thing so I don't remember anything about it. thanks to my daughter for sending this to me.
Very interesting piece. Colonel Walters was married to my great aunt. I've got photos of their house in Skedee, which is still owned by relatives. I've got the program for the dedication of the statue in Skedee and a few other photos, etc. I'd love to have copies of the photos of the dedication, the Col and the ad at the end if possible. Thanks!
how sad, but absolute congratulations to the makers of this, I hope you have entered it in short film contests
You are very talented. Picking music that flows so well with the video/pictures, makes a story really come to life. Thanks for sharing. :)
The name of the song is Farewell sung by Rosie Thomas.
I live in Ardmore,Ok and love to watch all kinds of stuff about Oklahoma.. Love the video..
My Mother was raised here. Arneta June Spears, and the McDugles. By the time we were all born, (12 of us) our grandparents lived in Pawnee. We did go back probably 10 years ago to look aroung. Not much left, but I do remember the picture of my mom and the high school. So sad our children will never know the simple pleasures in life.
You are so right. Kids today have access to so much technology. There is cell phone addiction now. Life is more complicated, unhappiness, violence. I think life was meant to be more simple. Kids playing outside. Enjoying nature. We keep contaminating our water sources. Some people are realizing having all the money bans career is not worth it anymore. There is the “lie flat” movement and other movements where young people are giving up careers to travel, live simple, enjoy life while young. Van life, live in other countries etc.
Very nicely done. The pictures were sad but beautiful and the choice of music was awesome. Thanks that kind of stuff is so interesting.
What a beautiful and melancholy video! Excellent job you've done. I've subbed.
This one is still one of my favorites. Rosa Thomas is wonderful with these photos.
at 2:38, that is a wonderful picture.
Lots of ghost towns in western Oklahoma. We used to do weekend bicycle rides out there to visit them.
Yes, I have many on my list out west I'd love to get to. Just a matter of time and money, of which there is never enough of, LOL.
Oklahoma Ghost Towns
I do photography and will be visiting this place...so, if you ever want to join or be a guide, contact me.
Blancat Rodolfoz I can be a guide and join you; however Skeedee maybe considered a ghost town, but I ensure you that people still live there. My grandfather was the principal at the school.
I went. I loved it. Great place to photograph!
You did a lovely job. Thanks for the post.
Amazingly, some of these abandoned towns had high schools, and they'd built them years before. In many parts of the US, people figured high school weren't needed. One man's father graduated from the 8th grade about 1920 in Texas. There were no high schools in the area, and shortly thereafter he went to work farming and repairing cars.
Didn’t know that. Education system has changed a lot but still needs so much revamping. The focus is always on teacher’s pay which $65,000 is a lot for a 4 year degree and a license. But the teaching, how they teach needs to be the focus. We are so behind other countries. From kindergarten through college. My dad attended a school for kindergarten through 8th grade that was on one side of the tracks and didn’t teach much. When he moved to another state he was very behind for his age. I feel sorry for the kids in this pandemic. Not everyone has stay at home parents or the perfect setting for on line schooling. A lot of kids are getting behind and who knows if they will ever recover.
Chief Baconrind is my 4 times great grandfather i had no idea out any of this no-one is my family talked about it or him this is cool to see
There are many who still live here and yes the church is still active. I loved living there with my grandmother. She lived in what was once known as Skeedee Valley now Pawnee, but Skeedee does still exist.
Beautiful.
Great choice of music and BTW, the airplane in one photo belonged to Billy Parker of Tulsa and now hangs in the Tulsa airport terminal building.
An absolute shame. I like the bond of friendship statue. It shows a different perspective of collaborating and working with our Indian friends. Cool to see. But sad that the town is a ghost town. It’s just hard after the Great Depression hits you, a flood takes out your railroad, and the local highways bypass you when they are built. Poor Skedee.
Un bonito trabajo informativo, me dio mucha paz ver esos paisajes que alguna vez estuvieron lleno de vida humana. Gracias a la persona que subió este video
My mother was born in Weleetka,The town is now a ghost town because people left the town because of the town the dieing, so they burned the abandoned houses. When i want there last summer. There was only burned down houses from the time. I visited a cousin of mine there. Only 1 gas station was opened there. And a few people lived there.
Burned down homes? Wow. If only the government could have stepped in and housed some homeless.
This is sad to see I was going through boxes after my mother recently passed away and found a journal written by my great great grandfather T B Newton who was the postmaster, constable and owned a hardware store in Skedee from 1893 to around 1914 It mentions names and events such as the damage caused by a cyclone on May 17th 1896 I wanted to send a copy to the Historical society if there was one Very sad
You can email me at dwtaylor999@yahoo
Reach out to your local historical society. They may be able to track down if there is one for Skedee. Valuable info.
There is the Pawnee County Historical Society in Pawnee just west of the courthouse.
Thanks!
2:08, look at the window...... What do you see?
Just a smaller version of Detroit-when a city/town ceases to be useful, it will decline and disappear. There are tons of old towns that no longer exist in New England-they were abandoned when better land was available out West.
I grew up in this town.
Well done!
I'm interested in the old photo that appears at about 1:40, of a family that includes a fiddle player. Can you tell me who they are and if it would be possible to get a copy of the photo?
My husband and I lived in SW Oklahoma for three years in the 1980s. We found a book on Ghost Towns of Oklahoma in the library and one of our favorite past times was driving to these towns and reading their history from the book. Some had lots of old buildings like this one, others were just a graveyard, or a bank vault out in the middle of a field.
Old stomping grounds in the mid seventies. I was a Skidgel from Pawnee.
Love your videos..
I am in Cali. Can anyone tell me what happened? Or why it's was abandoned? I am just curious. Beautiful footage!
It's Oklahoma, so most likely people ran off when the oil dried up or the soil turned poor. Also depending on which part of Oklahoma, it could be evacuated by a nuclear power plant closed in the seventies...it was in Skyatook, I believe. You should come to Oklahoma if you like ghost towns. Colorado has a lot too.
Some communities depended on oil and gas. When it was gone, people moved away. One community was a center for lead mining. When it was found to be highly contaminated, the town was closed. In the 1930s tremendous droughts affected huge swaths of North America. These droughts were so extensive, they even affected Ohio. This made people realize that the rainfall in parts of OK was not dependable. Farms got bigger. Until the 1960s, one could support a family on a 160-acre farm if the land was good. Farms have gotten much bigger, and one person can now plant and harvest about 1000 acres of many crops. Finally, increased numbers of automobiles and better roads made it possible to shop 20 or more miles away. This led to the demise of many local and township centers for trade. It's also reduced the importance of being a rail center.
It was one of the town's with a railroad that went through it. In the 50s the railway was destroyed in a flood. That's the biggest reason it didn't grow even more. It was never a big town never having reached 300 people
Gracias por llamar
Dang it i almost cried!
Very Cool Yah wounder if a person could live off that land cheap Freeland of sorts
Forgot to say that I attended Skedee
School for 1st and 2 nd grade. Dad graduated from there as well as my Aunt. Ms.Bertha Hayter was my teacher. Probably one of the best
I've known.
I'd like to know, also.
I would love to live off the land. Grow my own food. Raise chickens. Build my own house. That would save me money. No more chemicals in my food. No more rent/mortgage to worry about No more crazy neighbors to bother me. I would have complete privacy on my 10 acres of land. We can all dream can't we?
My grandma, Pearl Tucker (Pearl Marries) was born in Skedee in 1917 and raised in Pawnee. She passed away in '99.
so beautiful. . . . and sad.
0:36 That ad seems so insane. It's like it's advertising.....to itself.
I used to go to church here.
Nicely done. Who is the musical artist?
Duh. I found it, thanks.
i live in oklahoma maybe i can visit one day
there is a skedee reunion the first Saturday of june every year.
starts about 1 pm at the Skedee Assembly of God gym
Why is that a dream, I am in the works to do it now, I own 12 acres that I am going to build a cordwood house on, and I plan to reaise my own chickes, pigs, rabbits and a few cows, I have been working on my canning food skills for several years. So I will have a large garden and any tree on the property will be a fruit tree. If is only a dream if you are holding yourself back.
Question .. what were to building adjacent to the statue? One appears to have been a store of some sort, the one adjacent to the water pump near the statue had collapsed and the large building has been taken over by nature. I’d love to know what they were in their former glory.
I'd like to know, also.
im related to Col. E. Walters and my dad has some of his papers from when he was sellin the oil things in osage county
dude i live there and the only real interesting stuff is the statue and a couple old buildings that are there but most everything around here is falling apart or gettin helped in the process. But in the long run i think it would still be pretty cool to see before its all gone.
Moving into cities is a bad idee. "Restore the territory!" Yue Fei
I did an interesting bicycle tour to follow Custer's March Route as he was going to hunt down the Cheyenne at their winter camp. Went through several ghost towns in the process.
www.jimforeman.com/Stories/Custer/custer.htm
i have no idea but i will call him and see if he still has them but im waitin on him to get back from New Mexico right now and i dont have anyway to get a hold of the papers or find them. I will let you know what he says and see what hes willing to do
beautiful video, but there are still churches, and families here. :)
Could someone please tell me who is singing the song?
The artists name is Rosie Thomas.
Thank you for the reply, and for the great videos. Why does the state seem to have so many ghost towns?
dave harbour A few different things have caused first towns in Oklahoma. Some towns were built expecting the RR, which would end up bypassing their town, so the town would move. Some towns were oil him towns that flourished during the oil boom years, and declined later. The Great Depression affected some. Also others were built pre-statehood, and were not stable. Such as Beer City, which you can imagine the type of town it was from the name. It was located on the prairie in the pan handle and was pretty much just a bar and a brothel. Another good one is Bathsheba, was settled by women, exclusively for women, not even male animals were allowed! It had a population of about 33, but 12 left after the first week. So, some towns just weren't built to last.
Christina Slagle Hi Christina, thanks for the reply and thanks for the explanation, I have this thing for ghost towns. Who lived there? why did they leave? that sort of thing. And by the way there aint nothing wrong with being a little crazy and I should know cos I have been that way for years. Thanks again.
I know what you mean, I love ghost towns as well! I love to go ghost town hunting when I can, and when I can't, I enjoy researching at home and at the library. I have a plethora of information on Oklahoma history and ghost towns. I have a 3 in. thick binder I keep some of the info in to take with me, such as maps, lists of towns, etc. Both of my kids have been raised in it and enjoy going hunting for towns and cemeteries with me. Lol. Like you, I'm interested in the people who live there. When I find a place, I like to stand quietly and imagine how things were, who was there, 100 or so years ago. The lives that were there before me. And recognize that just because they're gone, doesn't mean they never mattered. Yup, I'm crazy. But I love every minute of it!
this is what happens when people decided they wanted malls and walmarts
haunting..... :)
Hey do you guys run the site
www.abandonok.com ?
I've been urban exploring for five years and as of yesterday I've gone to every place on that site that wasn't demolished or completely closed off. Or so I thought. I saw it was updated and I'm so excited to start on the new list. I was wanting to ask (that is if you run the site) if you guys would like me to take photos of some of the places I've seen. I was wanting to ask because I really love this stuff.
I'm a big fan of your channel by the way. You make some great content :)
We will all someday be gone.to think how far we have been ripped from the original intent of freedom and prosperity.i was once a young man in oklahoma.believed i could rise above the struggle.i was such a fool.in 1879 the US government decided our fate,along with the fate of our generations before us.we are all now born slaves.most likely we will die slaves.if your dreams go against the desires of your owner's, they will destroy you,your dreams and aspirations.ive accepted that all my years of hard work was in vain.i have come to realise that my hope in in the next place beyond this struggle.i have peace because i know.i never cheated anyone,stole from anyone and have treated people fairly.i owe no one.God is our only true hope.live your neighbor and do them no harm.this life is a test.someday all will pay for their deads.so if you have done people wrong to get over on them.if you have cheated or stole from them.make sure you enjoy this life to its fullist.there will be hell to pay.living the high life know,is not worth suffering for eternity.once upon a time, people lived a simple life.people lived one another.these fallen towns are a Testament to that.mostly that's also all gone know.learn to live in peace.learn to be happy with what you have.learn to love God and his law.our only hope is when we leave this place
If you use someones music in a video you should credit the artist by name and song title.
The artist and title are listed in the description.
For the love of God stop with all the ad's youtube or who ever is doing it!
Ads is how the TH-camr makes money for their channel. It must be significant because a lady is building a home in Mexico by money from TH-cam for the ads.
No problem. Email me at dwtaylor999@yahoo with your address and I'll send you copies. I know the house well, drive by it often. I love some copies of any photos you have and the dedication. I'll get copies to the county historical society.
Can do without the music
Obamaville.
You are a complete moron, this town went bust long before Obama took office, so he had nothing to do with it. Don't sully a fine piece of work with you political bickering.
now, now,...!
Beautiful dead but boring