Chelsea, Oklahoma, is a small town of about 1,950 people located in Rogers County in the northeastern part of the state. It primarily relies on farming, ranching, and oil production.

When white settlers pushed westward, this area was inhabited by Osage Indians. In 1817, Cherokee warriors accompanied by white settlers attacked the Osage in revenge for their having attacked homesteads in western Arkansas. After the battle, Osage leader Chief Claremont was killed, and the Osage vacated the area and moved westward. The Cherokee then began to move into the rich land basin formed between the Grand and Verdigris Rivers.

After discovering gold in Georgia, President Andrew Jackson authorized the Indian Removal Act in 1830, which required the Cherokee and other tribes to move West of the Mississippi River. In 1835, the Cherokee who had not moved voluntarily were forced westward on the Trail of Tears, and many settled in the area that would later become the town of Chelsea.

During the Civil War, some of the Cherokee aligned themselves with the Confederacy, which caused them to forfeit rights and land when the war was over. The Treaty of 1866 forced the Cherokee to cede land and rights to the railroad lines. The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad received land grants to run its line through the Cherokee Nation. However, when the Atlantic and Pacific Railway went bankrupt, its owners incorporated the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway, which began construction on tracks from Seneca, Missouri, to Vinita, Oklahoma. Another 64-mile extension began in 1882, running through Chelsea to Tulsa.

While surveying the extension, a railroad official named the station after his hometown of Chelsea, England. With the rail line’s opening, a flour mill began operating in 1882, and a post office was established on November 21, 1882. That same year, Edward Byrd, whose wife was Cherokee, discovered oil seeps southwest of Chelsea; however, no action was taken immediately. At first, Chelsea’s main economicstays were cattle ranching and farming oats, corn, wheat, and pecans. The community also became a shipping point for cattle, hay, and other products.

Around the same time, Will Rogers often visited Chelsea during his youth, as his sister, Allie McSpadden, lived there. Gene Autry would live in Chelsea many years later when he worked for the Frisco Railroad.

In 1887, William B. Linn, a Pennsylvanian, and a group of Kansas investors organized the United States Oil and Gas Company. The company leased drilling rights from the Cherokee Nation to 100,000 acres west of Chelsea, between the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad and the Verdigris River. In 1889, the Company drilled the first oil well in Indian Territory about five miles Southwest of Chelsea. The same year, the community was incorporated as a town in the Cherokee Nation.

Soon, more oil wells were drilled, and the whole area became known as the Chelsea-Alluwe Oil Field. This oil field drove the town’s growth and helped shape the destiny of the entire state of Oklahoma.

The first bank in Indian Territory, the Bank of Chelsea, was established in March 1896. The Chelsea Reporter newspaper was established the same year and is still in operation today. It is one of the state’s oldest newspapers and the oldest business in Chelsea. The Chelsea Reporter Office is located at 245 W 6th Street. By 1900, the town boasted 566 people.

The United States Townsite Commission surveyed and officially platted Chelsea in 1902. Afterward, they laid brick streets in the shape of a spoked wheel, with downtown Chelsea as the hub.

In 1912, the Hogue House was built at 1001 South Olive Street in Chelsea. The two-and-a-half-story home is significant because it was Oklahoma’s first Sears kit home and one of the first built West of the Mississippi River. Joe Hogue, a local cattleman, visited Chicago, Illinois, in 1911, where he saw a display of Sears building materials at Sears headquarters. The display included a few “Sears Modern Homes.” He liked the Saratoga plan, bought it for $1,600, and had the materials shipped to Chelsea via the St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad. The Hogue family owned the home until 2005. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it is a privately owned residence today.

The Chelsea-Alluwe Oil Field continued to produce oil until the early 1920s, before it played out. That same decade, Route 66 was blazed through Chelsea in 1926, when the town boasted at least one oil refinery and a booming commercial district along Walnut Street. When Route 66 was first built, it curved South just 1/4 mile East of Chelsea along 4260 Road and crossed Pryor Creek on a 123-foot-long steel truss bridge before continuing along 1st Street toward Walnut Street in Chelsea. The historic Pryor Creek Bridge remains open to traffic today and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. In 1932, the route was realigned to the North, bypassing this section.

By 1930, Chelsea had 1,527 residents. That decade, the old Chelsea Motel was built at the intersection of Walnut Avenue and East 1st Street on Route 66. The locally owned motel was prominent when it was built and had six units. They added its neon sign in 1947. During the following decades, the motel changed hands occasionally and responded to the increasing demands of the traveling public, such as telephones and air conditioning. The motel closed in 1976. Today, the old motel is privately owned and used for storage. It is not accessible to the public but can be viewed from the public right-of-way.

Unfortunately, Route 66 was not permanent. By the mid-1950s, it was congested and unsafe, and construction of the Turner and Will Rogers turnpikes in 1957 took traffic away from the small town.

Route 66 continues Southwest for eight miles before it reaches the small town of Foyil. Along the way, travelers will pass through what was once the community of Bushyhead. But of this 1898 community, named after a Cherokee Chief, nothing remains today except several homes in the area.

 

©Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated October 2026.

Also See:

Oklahoma – Indian Territory

Oklahoma Route 66

Oklahoma Route 66 Photo Gallery

Route 66 Main Page

Sources:

Chelsea Historic Society
Oklahoma History
National Park Service
Wikipedia