Erick and Texola Oklahoma - Gateway to Oklahoma

OKLAHOMA LEGENDS

Erick and Texola - Gateways to Oklahoma

As you continue your Route 66 journey to the Texas line from Sayre, Oklahoma, you will pass by the ghost town of Hext, established in 1901. The stretch between here and upcoming Erick were the last in Oklahoma to lose its US 66 designation to superhighway I-40.

Erick, Oklahoma

Erick, known as the “Gateway to Oklahoma,” was once the westernmost city of the state due to surveying disputes with Texas. Getting its start in 1901, the town was named for Beeks Erick, a developer for the Choctaw Townsite. Primarily formed as a farm and ranch community, the area was first known for the many cattle drives that passed through, stopping at old Salt Springs southwest of Erick. Nature’s gift to these early-day cattlemen, the fresh-water springs made an ideal stopping off place during the late nineteenth century.

Later the town received a boost when oil and natural gas was found in the area. The town hoped to become another Oklahoma boomtown, however, these hopes were dashed by the mid 1940's and the town began to decline.

The City Meat Market building is the oldest in Erick,

Oklahoma, May, 2004, Kathy Weiser.

When Erick was bypassed by I-40, it suffered yet another blow, and today many of its brick buildings along Route 66 sit empty and silent, speaking eloquently of better days.

The old Winds Motel in Erick, Oklahoma just sits lonely

these days, May, 2004, Kathy Weiser.

Erick was the boyhood home of Roger Miller, the late country music legend, Mr. “King of the Road” himself. The stretch of 4-lane that enters Erick from Sayre has been renamed Roger Miller Memorial Highway, and that part of Route 66 through town, is called Roger Miller Boulevard. Further memorializing Mr. Miller, current plans are in the works to create the Roger Miller Museum

While in Erick, be sure to visit the 100^th Meridian Museum filled with artifacts from prehistoric times to present, and sate your appetite at the Rater T Restaurant, formerly known as Cal’s Country Kitchen and serving up customers since 1946. Just one block south of Route 66 is the old City Meat Market, Erick’s oldest building, which now houses the Sand Hill Curiosity Shop.

Between Erick and the nearby ghost town of Texola, the prairie stretches out beyond the old Mother Road that is beginning to get overgrown from its lack of use.

Texola

Texola was born in 1901 and sits near the 100^th Meridian. For this reason, the town has been surveyed eight different times over the years, so many of its residents have lived in both Oklahoma and Texas over the years, without ever having moved. In its earliest days, the people of the town had a hard time figuring out what to call it, changing the name from Texokla, to Texoma, and Texola. Finally, a town election chose its permanent name.

Though Texola is clearly a ghost town, as evidenced by its lack of business and abandoned buildings, there are still a few residents left here, as well as a church and a bar on the western edge of town that boldly makes the statement on the side of its building, "There's no other place like this place anywhere near this place so this must be the place."

Be sure to check out the Old Territorial Jail built in 1910, which continues to stand one block north of Route 66, before heading to the staked plains of the Texas Panhandle.

Kathy Weiser/Legends of America, © January, 2005

This old business in Texola, Oklahoma is long closed,

May, 2004, Kathy Weiser.

No more gas at this old station, May, 2004, Kathy Weiser.

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Perhaps the one time residents of this home packed up

and headed to California in the dust bowl days.

May, 2004, Kathy Weiser.

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To Sayre

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