Brinkman is an
unincorporated community
An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...
in
Greer County,
Oklahoma
Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...
, United States. It lies at the western terminus of
State Highway 34B, nine miles north of
Mangum and one mile west of
U.S. Route 283
U.S. Route 283 is a spur of U.S. Route 83. It currently runs for 731 miles (1,175 km) from Brady, Texas at U.S. Route 87 to Lexington, Nebraska at U.S. Route 30. It passes through the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska.
R ...
. Brinkman is now considered a
ghost town
A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...
.
History
Brinkman was founded in 1910, and named after John Brinkman, who was a business associate of railroad builders
Joseph A. Kemp and
Frank Kell
Frank, FRANK, or Franks may refer to:
People
* Frank (given name)
* Frank (surname)
* Franks (surname)
* Franks, a Germanic people in late Roman times
* Franks, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusa ...
. A
post office
A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...
opened on June 17, 1910. By late 1911 it had its own weekly newspaper, the ''Brinkman Courier''. By 1925 the high school had over 450 students.
It was a market town for the surrounding area and had two large
elevators
An elevator (American English) or lift (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) is a machine that vertically transports people or freight between levels. They are typically powered by electric motors that drive tracti ...
as well as other amenities. But the bank closed in 1927, and a fire destroyed half the town in 1929. Most of the buildings were never rebuilt.
Oklahoma State Highway 34
State Highway 34 (abbreviated SH-34) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It runs for south-to-north in the western part of the state. The highway begins northeast of Eldorado, in the southwest corner of the state, and extends n ...
, constructed in 1931, bypassed the town to the east, accelerating the decline.
The school closed in 1957.
[Lillie-Beth Brinkman]
"Former Brinkman residents remember community with new monument: Brinkman marker to be dedicated in southwest Oklahoma on Saturday."
''The Oklahoman
''The Oklahoman'' is the largest daily newspaper in Oklahoma, United States, and is the only regional daily that covers the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, Greater Oklahoma City area. The Alliance for Audited Media (formerly Audit Bureau Circul ...
'', August 30, 2012 (pay site). On December 30, 1965 the post office closed. The school building had been removed and the school district consolidated into a still larger unit. In 1972 the railroad that started the town was abandoned, and in 1974 the tracks were taken up. With the end of this activity Brinkman ceased to exist. By 1980 there were only a few residents left here. Today, all that remains there are a few old buildings and a very small population.
A community historical marker was erected in 2012.
Geography
Brinkman is located at an elevation of 1,693 feet (516 m).
References
*
External links
History of Farming in Brinkman
{{authority control
Geography of Greer County, Oklahoma
Ghost towns in Oklahoma
Unincorporated communities in Oklahoma