Jumbo, Oklahoma
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Jumbo 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 western Pushmataha 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, 10 miles north of
Miller A miller is a person who operates a mill, a machine to grind a grain (for example corn or wheat) to make flour. Milling is among the oldest of human occupations. "Miller", "Milne" and other variants are common surnames, as are their equivalents ...
.


History

A
United States Post Office The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal serv ...
was established for Jumbo, Indian Territory on November 8, 1906. The post office took its name from the Jumbo Asphalt Company, a prominent local employer. Prior to Oklahoma's statehood, Jumbo was located in
Jack's Fork County {{More footnotes, date=July 2022 Jack's Fork County, also known as Jack Fork County, was a political subdivision of the Choctaw Nation of Indian Territory. The county formed part of the nation's Pushmataha District, or Third District, one of three ...
, a part of the
Pushmataha District Pushmataha District was one of three provinces, or districts, comprising the former Choctaw Nation in the Indian Territory. Also called the Third District, it encompassed the southwestern one-third of the nation. The Pushmataha District was named ...
of the
Choctaw Nation The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma (Choctaw: ''Chahta Okla'') is a Native American reservation occupying portions of southeastern Oklahoma in the United States. At roughly , it is the second-largest reservation in area after the Navajo, exceeding t ...
, in the
Indian Territory Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United States, ...
. Jumbo was blessed by abundant natural resources, including
asphalt Asphalt most often refers to: * Bitumen, also known as "liquid asphalt cement" or simply "asphalt", a viscous form of petroleum mainly used as a binder in asphalt concrete * Asphalt concrete, a mixture of bitumen with coarse and fine aggregates, u ...
. Hugh W. Adams (ca. 1836-1905), one of the original pioneers of
Antlers, Oklahoma Antlers is a city in and the county seat of Pushmataha County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 2,221 as of the 2020 United States census. The town was named for a kind of tree that becomes festooned with antlers shed by deer, and ...
, and a
prospector Prospector may refer to: Space exploration * Prospector (spacecraft), a planned lunar probe, canceled in 1962 * ''Lunar Prospector'', a NASA spacecraft Trains * Prospector (train), a passenger train operated by the Denver & Rio Grande Western ra ...
, located the asphalt vein at Jumbo. The Jumbo Asphalt Company established
mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...
operations there and, by 1904, the community was known as Jumbo Mines. By 1905 the company was mining up to eight
ton Ton is any of several units of measure of mass, volume or force. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses. As a unit of mass, ''ton'' can mean: * the '' long ton'', which is * the ''tonne'', also called the ''metric ...
s of asphalt per day, which it shipped to
Moyers, Oklahoma Moyers is an unincorporated community located in Pushmataha County, Oklahoma, United States. History A permanent settlement has existed at the site of modern Moyers since at least the 1880s. During the 1880s the St. Louis-San Francisco Rail ...
via a dedicated
tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...
line. The line stretched from Jumbo south through the Impson Valley, rounding the foot of Parker Mountain into Moyers, where it connected with the railhead at the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway. By 1906, Jumbo Mines was home to at least 40 families. This remained the case through recent decades, when the countryside around Jumbo emptied due to lack of economic opportunities and its churches, school, and
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 ...
closed. In November 1910, Jumbo was site of a horrible accident. The mine—whose shaft was 280 feet deep, at which point it branched several hundred feet to the north—experienced a lethal explosion. At least 14 miners were killed, and more died later of wounds. Several miners were blown up the shaft and out the mouth of the mine. Ten of the miners were buried side by side in the Jumbo Cemetery. At the time of the explosion, the mine was owned by the Choctaw Asphalt Company of
St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...
,
Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...
. It continued to operate for years; today the mouth of its shaft is capped but may still be seen off the Jumbo Road. During the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
, the WPA built a public school at Jumbo. The school was built using native "red rock" gathered from nearby fields. The school still partially stands, although the back half was bulldozed during the 1990s by a local landowner for safety reasons, who cleared the land for cattle to graze. Jumbo's Impson family cemetery grave markers have been lost. Immediately prior to
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, a local farmer gathered the tombstones, stacked them under a tree, and ploughed the property for use as a field. The property today is overgrown with bois d'arc trees and difficult to access.Recollection of Kay Brown Black, local resident. During World War II, Jumbo and Moyers were the site of mishaps with international repercussions, two of them fatal. British pilots operating from a
Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...
base in
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, hampered by poor weather, crashed into White Rock Mountain and Big Mountain above Moyers, killing four crewmen. Two planes were destroyed. A third plane crash-landed successfully at Jumbo, in a field known locally as the Bedford meadow, owned by farmer and rancher Bill Perrin. Its pilot, John Wall, and navigator, "Wilbur" Wright, were unhurt and were kept overnight by a local family, Mr. and Mrs. E.F. Jordan. British military officers soon retrieved the airplane, which was salvageable. On February 20, 2000 the
AT6 Monument The AT6 Monument is a granite memorial to Royal Air Force cadets who were killed while on a training flight during World War II. It stands on Big Mountain, north of Moyers, Oklahoma, in the United States, and was dedicated on February 20, 2000— ...
was dedicated in the fliers' honor at the crash site on Big Mountain. Wall and Wright also attended, and had a happy reunion with the Perrin family. Over 1,000 people attended the ceremony, and the story was carried by the
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
and many newspapers around the world. More information on Jumbo and the Impson Valley may be found in the Pushmataha County Historical Society.


Geography

Jumbo is located in the picturesque Impson Valley. Buck Creek and Box Springs mountains frame the eastern side of its valley, and Long Mountain frames the western side. In recent years the territory to the west of Jumbo has been incorporated into McGee Creek State Park, particularly the area of Wildcat and Bugaboo canyons.


Transportation

Despite improvements in the local roadways, Jumbo remains physically isolated from other communities in Pushmataha and Atoka counties. This is ironic, as the four-lane
Indian Nation Turnpike The Indian Nation Turnpike, also designated State Highway 375 (SH-375), is a controlled-access highway, controlled-access toll road in southeastern Oklahoma, United States, running between Hugo, Oklahoma, Hugo and Henryetta, Oklahoma, Henryetta ...
was built through Impson Valley, passing just to the east of the community, and opened in 1970. It features no
interchange Interchange may refer to: Transport * Interchange (road), a collection of ramps, exits, and entrances between two or more highways * Interchange (freight rail), the transfer of freight cars between railroad companies * Interchange station, a rai ...
for Jumbo, however, causing local residents to venture to Daisy on the north to enter or exit the turnpike.


References

{{Coord, 34, 26, 43, N, 95, 44, 08, W, type:city_region:US-OK_source:GNIS-enwiki, display=title Unincorporated communities in Oklahoma Unincorporated communities in Pushmataha County, Oklahoma Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma