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
Ellis County, Oklahoma
Ellis County is a county located on the western border of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,749, making it the fifth-least populous county in Oklahoma. Its county seat is Arnett.
The county was named fo ...
, United States. It served as the
county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...
of Day County and then of Ellis County until the seat moved to Arnett in 1908.
History
Today's community of Grand was the one-time county seat of Ellis County. First established as Ioland to be the county seat of "E" County (later Day County). When the Cheyenne Arapaho reserve was opened, it was moved across the
Canadian River
The Canadian River is the longest tributary of the Arkansas River in the United States. It is about long, starting in Colorado and traveling through New Mexico, the Texas Panhandle, and Oklahoma. The drainage area is about .Shirk, George H. ''Oklahoma Place Names''. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1987. Accessed March 1, 2020.
When Day County was extinguished at statehood, Grand found itself in Ellis County, and was the county seat until August 26, 1908. The Ellis County Courthouse moved to Arnett. The Grand post office existed from November 4, 1892, until September 30, 1943. Only the footings of the courthouse and the vault that once held the Day County records remain visible at the site.
Grand had a cemetery and a post office; the cemetery is located at .
The site was added to the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1972 as the Grand Town Site.
Notable person
Grand was the birthplace of
Western swing
Western swing, country jazz or smooth country is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands. It is dance music, often with an up-tempo beat, which att ...
musician
Spade Cooley
Donnell Clyde "Spade" Cooley (December 17, 1910 – November 23, 1969) was an American Western swing musician, big-band leader, actor, television personality, and convicted murderer. In 1961, he was tried and convicted for the murder of his ...
* http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v028/v028p399.pdf C. A. Squire, "Old Grand, GhostTown," Chronicles of Oklahoma." Accessed July 2, 2015.