Douthat is 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 ...

in Ottawa 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. Douthat is south of Picher. Douthat once had 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 ...

, which opened on March 17, 1917. The community was named after Zahn A. Douthat, the owner of the townsite. Douthat is now abandoned and part of the

Tar Creek Superfund site Tar Creek Superfund site is a United States Superfund site, declared in 1983, located in the cities of Picher, Douthat and Cardin, Ottawa County, in northeastern Oklahoma. From 1900 to the 1960s lead mining and zinc mining companies left beh ...

. Douthat constituted the west part of a larger mining camp known as Century, Oklahoma. A newspaper, The Independent, also called the Douthat Independent, referred to the town in its first issue published July 5, 1917 as "Douthat (Century)", and indicated the place was the "center of the Quapaw Miami mining district—the greatest lead and zinc mining country in the world excepting none". The paper used both names going forward, stating in an advertisement in the second edition that the business in question was opposite the O.K.& M. train station in Douthat, but editorializing in the third edition that in regard to needed but uninstalled railroad crossings, "Century is full of promises from the O. K. & M. You see they have not put in road crossings". As referenced, the Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri Inter-Urban Railway Company (O.K.& M.) had built into Douthat/Century from

Commerce Commerce is the organized Complex system, system of activities, functions, procedures and institutions that directly or indirectly contribute to the smooth, unhindered large-scale exchange (distribution through Financial transaction, transactiona ...

in 1916. That line later became part of the

Northeast Oklahoma Railroad The predecessor rail lines which eventually came together as the Northeast Oklahoma Railroad (“NEO”) started as early as 1906, with some routes continuing until NEO was merged into the St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad (“Frisco”) in 1967. ...

in 1919. The line was absorbed into the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway (Frisco) in 1967, but was subsequently abandoned.

References

Geography of Ottawa County, Oklahoma Ghost towns in Oklahoma Environmental disaster ghost towns {{Oklahoma-geo-stub