Wild Horse Lake is a
playa lake
Playa (plural playas) may refer to:
Landforms
* Endorheic basin, also known as a sink, alkali flat or sabkha, a desert basin with no outlet which periodically fills with water to form a temporary lake
* Dry lake, often called a ''playa'' in the so ...
located in
Texas County, Oklahoma. The lake is west of
Hooker
Hooker may refer to:
People
* Hooker (surname)
Places Antarctica
* Mount Hooker (Antarctica)
* Cape Hooker (Antarctica)
* Cape Hooker (South Shetland Islands)
New Zealand
* Hooker River
* Mount Hooker (New Zealand) in the Southern Alps
* Hoo ...
, east of
Hough, just south of the Oklahoma-Kansas border, off
State Highway 136.
The lake was the location of the infamous
Hay Meadow Massacre (July 1888) in which one faction in the
county seat fight in
Stevens County, Kansas
Stevens County (standard abbreviation: SV) is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Kansas. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the county population was 5,250. Its county seat is Hugoton, Kansas, Hugoton. T ...
, killed four members of the opposing faction. Since the killings took place in what was then
No Man's Land
No man's land is waste or unowned land or an uninhabited or desolate area that may be under dispute between parties who leave it unoccupied out of fear or uncertainty. The term was originally used to define a contested territory or a dump ...
, no court had jurisdiction over the crime. The lake was also the subject of Oklahoma case law in reference to water appropriations—Depuy V. Hoeme (1980 OK 26, 611 P.2d 228).
References
Bodies of water of Texas County, Oklahoma
Lakes of Oklahoma
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