Driftwood is a small

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 northern Alfalfa 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. A formerly prosperous small rural community, at one time it had two churches, a grocery store, barber shop, gas station with repair shop, grain elevator, two-story school, a telephone office, bank, and post office. Currently, it is made up of less than a dozen residences - along with a church and cemetery - grouped along both sides of Oklahoma State Highway 8/ State Highway 58.

History

Prior to statehood in 1907, all the lands of what was to one day become Alfalfa County were part of the

Cherokee Outlet The Cherokee Outlet, or Cherokee Strip, was located in what is now the state of Oklahoma in the United States. It was a parcel of land south of the Oklahoma–Kansas border between 96th meridian west, 96 and 100th meridian west, 100°W. The Che ...

under the control of the

Cherokee Nation The Cherokee Nation ( or ) is the largest of three list of federally recognized tribes, federally recognized tribes of Cherokees in the United States. It includes people descended from members of the Cherokee Nation (1794–1907), Old Cheroke ...

. A prominent rancher, Major Andrew Drumm, leased grazing lands from the Cherokee in the 1870s and 1880s at a location between the Salt Fork and Medicine, or Medicine Lodge rivers, from which he operated his U Ranch. Starting in 1874, the U Ranch headquarters was located a few miles north of present-day

Cherokee The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...

, just southeast of Driftwood. The town of Driftwood was officially incorporated in 1898. (However, a footnote to the 1930 U.S. Census states that the town was "incorporated from part of Driftwood township in 1924.") The name "Driftwood" was taken from nearby Driftwood Creek, which empties into the Medicine Lodge River. Driftwood's post office was established May 12, 1894. From 1902 to 1906, this post office also served nearby Burlington (then known as Drumm). In 1901, a stage line was established connecting nearby

Kiowa, Kansas Kiowa is a city in Kiowa Township, Barber County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 902. It is located one mile north of the Kansas / Oklahoma state border. History 19th century Kiowa was founde ...

with Alfalfa county towns, including Burlington, Driftwood, Cherokee, Yewed, and Augusta. The county's first railroad, the Choctaw Northern Railroad (later owned by the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific) connected Driftwood to the other Alfalfa county towns of Aline, Augusta, Lambert, Ingersoll, Amorita, and on into Kansas. The little town's population would peak in 1930 with 71 inhabitants. The railroad line through Driftwood and its neighboring towns was abandoned in 1936. The town's post office was closed on October 31, 1959. Its population was listed as 32 in 1963. In the 1960s, the local schools from the towns of Driftwood,

Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824) was an English poet. He is one of the major figures of the Romantic movement, and is regarded as being among the greatest poets of the United Kingdom. Among his best-kno ...

, Amorita, and Burlington were all consolidated into the Burlington School District located in nearby Burlington. After the abandoning of its only rail line, the declining population had made it increasingly difficult to sustain educational and city services so that by 1980, Driftwood was no longer incorporated. By the 1990 census, its population had dwindled to just 27 persons.

Geography

Driftwood is located in north-central Alfalfa County straddling Oklahoma State Highway 8/ State Highway 58, south of the Kansas-Oklahoma line. It is straight north of

on combined State Highways 8 and 58 and lies roughly to the west of the course of the Medicine Lodge River. The

U.S. Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on March ...

cites Driftwood's latitude as 36°52′45″N (36.8791951) and its longitude as 98°21′34″W (-98.3595173) with an elevation of 1191 feet.

Notable people

R. Orin Cornett (1913 – 2002) was born in Driftwood on November 14, 1913. Cornett earned his doctorate of physics and applied mathematics from the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

in 1940 and taught physics, mathematics, and electronics at Oklahoma Baptist,

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with ca ...

, and

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

universities. He was the inventor of the system of communication for the deaf known as

Cued Speech Cued speech is a visual system of communication used with and among deaf or hard-of-hearing people. It is a phonemic-based system which makes traditionally spoken languages accessible by using a small number of handshapes, known as cues (represe ...

. He also served in education administration as a vice president at Oklahoma Baptist University and in various positions including the Vice President of Long Range Planning for

Gallaudet University Gallaudet University ( ) is a private federally chartered university in Washington, D.C., for the education of the deaf and hard of hearing. It was founded in 1864 as a grammar school for both deaf and blind children. It was the first school ...

References

External links

Driftwood Christian Church

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Alfalfa County, Oklahoma Unincorporated communities in Oklahoma

History

Geography

Notable people

See also

References

Further reading

External links