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UER Forum > Archived US: South > Ghost town of Grainola, Oklahoma (Viewed 322 times)
dwtaylor999 


Location: Unassigned Lands, Oklahoma
Gender: Male




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Ghost town of Grainola, Oklahoma
< on 5/27/2011 7:44 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Originally called Salt Creek, the community was a location along the Midland Valley Railway, named for a nearby saline creek. A post office had been established in November of 1906 but as the area grew, an official townsite was established in 1909 and the postal designation was changed to Grainola, a made up word, in March 1910. By November of that year the community had two grain elevators, a general store, and a lumberyard. A bank had been organized, and several businesses, including a hotel, were being planned. Cattle ranching and farming fueled the economy. The primary crops were corn, wheat, oats, and hay. Two passenger-freight trains arrived and departed daily, and children attended a local school. A Methodist Episcopal church was built in 1920, a year in which the town had an estimated population of about five hundred. On Saturday nights residents watched silent films at a downtown theater. strangely, Grainola had no known newspaper. The Methodist church and the old Midland Valley depot.





Located north of the Burbank Oil Field, Grainola's primary benefit from the Osage oil boom of the 1910s and 1920s was as a shipping point for supplies and fodder for draft animals used in the oil field. The horrible road conditions in the fields meant trucks where usually stuck, so large numbers of horse and wagon teams where used before the roads were improved.



By February 1931, the Grainola State Bank had consolidated with the American Exchange Bank of Shidler, which was liquidated on July 11th, 1933. The original school was condemned around 1920 and classes were held above the general store, the church, and an old pool hall. The town had entered a period of steep decline and the population had dropped to less than 200 people.











During the Great Depression, the WPA constructed a public school and a community well at Grainola. Despite the new school, the town's population continued to fall. The last doctor had left by 1942 and by 1950 the population had dropped to about 50 people. By 1970, local children were attending school at Shidler and the Midland Valley track had been abandoned.

In 1980, when Grainola had a population of 67, the town comprised thirty residences, two churches, two businesses, and a senior citizens center. Today, with a population of less than 30, no active businesses or post office remain. This is the last old building still standing in the business district and the remains of the old WPA well.





The school was built by the WPA in 1937 and though a beautiful school, it seems to have been overkill for the area. Built of buff brick with concrete sills and accents, it included a central gymnasium with two wings for separate grade and high schools, with a basement under the gymnasium. The high school was closed in the 1950 and the grade school closed in the 1955, consolidating with the Shidler school district. One wing of the school was used as a community center until the 1980s when the leaking roof forced it's abandonment.

In 1950, the Grainola girls basketball team, against all odds, and with only 14 members won the state basketball championship. Three months later the high school closed forever.













The school, at least the grade school wing, was used as a community center for several
years, until the roof leaks resulted in complete abandonment.

































Be warned, if for some bizarre reason you find yourself here, the gymnasium floor is very rotten. It's above a full basement with about 4 feet of water.





















Grainola, the town with the made up name, started before the oil and survived past it.
Having outlived many of the larger boom towns in the Osage, it too will soon be only a
memory.



Ruins, the fate of all cities.
insulinguy 


Location: Fort Worth, Texas
Gender: Male




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Re: Ghost town of Grainola, Oklahoma
<Reply # 1 on 5/27/2011 9:39 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
i think the WPA used the same curtains on a lot of the school gym/auditoriums they built. ive seen that curtain a couple of times myself. nice work man - really love your posts!

pro-abortion, anti-christ
UER Forum > Archived US: South > Ghost town of Grainola, Oklahoma (Viewed 322 times)



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