Kusa is a populated place located in
Okmulgee County, Oklahoma
Okmulgee County is a county in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2010 census, the population was 40,069. The county seat is Okmulgee. Located within the Muscogee Nation Reservation, the county was created at statehood in 1907. The name Ok ...
, about 4 miles east-northeast of
Henryetta
Henryetta is a city in Okmulgee County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 5,927 at the 2010 census, down 9.6 percent from the figure of 6,096 recorded in 2000.
History
Hugh Henry established a ranch on Creek Nation land in 1885. He so ...
. Officially incorporated March 27th, 1916,
and located in the
Henryetta Coal Mining District, Kusa became a coal mining and lead smelting boomtown, complete with movie theaters, hotels, and banks.
It even had its own newspaper, The Kusa Industrial, which published between 1914 and 1920. The population grew to a size of about 3,500, making it the largest town in the county at one point.
[
While coal mining was the major draw,][ the town was the site of a 47-acre horizontal retort smelter which processed zinc ore beginning in 1915, but ending in 1928. Brickmaking grew up in the 1920s spurred by the need to make the construction grade bricks, fireclay retorts, and clay condensers that were used in the zinc smelting operation; but, those facilities were cleared by 1949. Along with these shutdowns and the closure of the coal mines,][ and later by the highway ( Highway 266) bypassing it to the north.][ The town’s incorporation was eventually dissolved,][ and nothing is now left of the original buildings except foundations, although some people still live in the area.]
References
Unincorporated communities in Okmulgee County, Oklahoma
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