Locust Grove is a town in
Mayes 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. The population was 1,371 at the
2020 census,
down from 1,423 in
2010
The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...
.
History
Locust Grove was the site of the
Battle of Locust Grove, a small
Civil War
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...
engagement on July 3, 1862, in which approximately 250
Union troops surprised and destroyed a similar-sized
Confederate
A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...
contingent, killing about 100 and capturing another 100 while sustaining only minimal losses. The escaping Confederates retreated toward
Tahlequah
Tahlequah ( ; , ) is a city in Cherokee County, Oklahoma located at the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. It is part of the Green Country region of Oklahoma and was established as a capital of the 19th-century Cherokee Nation in 1839, as par ...
, leading to a loss of morale and desertions among the
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 ...
Confederate supporters.
[John D. May, "Locust Grove, Battle of", ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture''](_blank)
/ref>
A small community, named for the grove of locust tree
Locust tree can mean:
* Any of a number of tree species in the genera ''Gleditsia'' or ''Robinia'', including:
** Honey locust (''Gleditsia triacanthos''), a leguminous tree with pods having a sweet, edible pulp
** Black locust (''Robinia pseudoa ...
s where this battle took place, formed here, in the Cherokee Nation of 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, ...
. A post office was established here on March 26, 1873. Jim Bryan moved the post office to his store in 1908, after Oklahoma became a state and Mayes County was established. In 1910, Louie Ross bought the Bryan store and moved it to his father's ranch house. The community of Locust Grove soon relocated closer to the store, and soon had a cemetery, a gristmill, two blacksmith shops, and a separate building to house the post office.[Betty Lou Harper Thomas, "Locust Grove"](_blank)
''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture''. Accessed March 23, 2009.
The existing townsite was established in 1912 by O.W. Killam, a lawyer, merchant, realtor and promoter who bought the Cherokee allotment that had belonged to Elzina Ross in connection with the construction of the Kansas, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway
The Kansas, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway (“KO&G”) had at its height 310.5 miles of track from Denison, Texas through Oklahoma to Baxter Springs, Kansas. Its various predecessor companies built the line between 1904 and 1913. The railroad was c ...
. Killam platted the townsite and incorporated it on March 4, 1913.
The town has had its share of tragedy. In June 1952, the county attorney Jack Burris was assassinated at his home at Locust Grove in one of the most famous unsolved murders in Oklahoma history. In 1977 it was the location of the Oklahoma Girl Scout murders, in which three young girls were raped and murdered as they were camping at the nearby Camp Scott Girl Scout facility. Gene Leroy Hart was arrested and tried for the crime, but found not guilty in a jury trial. The case remains open. Also, a popular restaurant, "Country Cottage", was linked to a highly publicized August 2008 outbreak of ''E. coli
''Escherichia coli'' ( )Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. is a gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus ''Escherichia'' that is commonly foun ...
'' O111, a rare strain of the bacterium. The outbreak resulted in more than 100 cases of gastrointestinal food poisoning and one death; subsequent studies were unclear about the source of the bacteria, leading Oklahoma Attorney General
The attorney general of Oklahoma is the State Attorney General for the state of Oklahoma. The attorney general serves as the chief legal and law enforcement officer of the State of Oklahoma and head of the Office of the Oklahoma Attorney General ...
Drew Edmondson
William Andrew Edmondson (born October 12, 1946) is an American lawyer and politician from the state of Oklahoma. A member of the Democratic Party, Edmondson served as the 16th Attorney General of Oklahoma from 1995 to 2011. Prior to his elect ...
to accuse the state health department of having "botched" the investigation.
Native American 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 ...
sculptor Willard Stone lived near Locust Grove; a museum dedicated to his work is now located on the site.["Stone Family History"](_blank)
at Willard Stone Museum official website (retrieved March 21, 2009).
Locust Grove is home to the Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry. There is only one other poetry museum in the U.S., the American Poetry Museum in Washington DC.
Geography
Locust Grove is in southeastern Mayes County, south of Salina and east of Chouteau
Chouteau was the name of a highly-successful ethnically-French furtrading family based in Saint Louis, Missouri, which they helped found.
Their ancestors Chouteau and Laclède initially settled in New Orleans. They then moved up the Mississippi ...
. U.S. Route 412
U.S. Route 412 is an east–west United States highway, first commissioned in 1982. U.S. 412 overlaps expressway-grade Cimarron Turnpike from Tulsa west to Interstate 35 and the Cherokee Turnpike from east of Chouteau, Oklahoma, to west of t ...
, a four-lane freeway, passes along the southern border of the town, with access from Exit 6 ( State Highway 82. U.S. 412 Alternate follows the former route of the highway through the center of Locust Grove. U.S. 412 leads east to the town of Kansas
Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...
and west to Tulsa
Tulsa ( ) is the second-most-populous city in the state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tul ...
. State Highway 82 runs along the eastern border of Locust Grove, leading north to Salina and southeast to Tahlequah
Tahlequah ( ; , ) is a city in Cherokee County, Oklahoma located at the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. It is part of the Green Country region of Oklahoma and was established as a capital of the 19th-century Cherokee Nation in 1839, as par ...
.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The U.S. Census Bureau is part of the U ...
, the town of Locust Grove has a total area of , all land. The town is drained to the west by Crutchfield Branch, a tributary of the Neosho River
The Neosho River is a tributary of the Arkansas River in eastern Kansas and northeastern Oklahoma in the United States. Its tributaries also drain portions of Missouri and Arkansas. The river is about long.U.S. Geological Survey. National ...
.
Demographics
As of the census of 2010, there were 5,200 people, 819 households, and 363 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 567 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 57.32% White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 32.50% Native American, 0.22% Asian, 0.81% from other races, and 9.15% from two or more races. Hispanic
The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or Latino of any race were 2.42% of the population.
There were 519 households, out of which 38.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.4% were married couples living together, 17.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.9% were non-families. 26.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 16.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.63 and the average family size was 3.14.
In the town, the population was spread out, with 32.1% under the age of 18, 12.2% from 18 to 24, 25.5% from 25 to 44, 16.7% from 45 to 64, and 13.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 29 years. For every 100 females, there were 90.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 80.9 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $20,655, and the median income for a family was $24,821. Males had a median income of $25,500 versus $16,389 for females. The per capita income for the town was $9,191. About 22.1% of families and 23.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 28.8% of those under age 18 and 19.5% of those age 65 or over.
Education
It is in the Locust Grove Public Schools school district, located in Locust Grove. It serves the students from Locust Grove and many other communities.[ ]
Text list
/ref>
The school system consists of four different schools: The Early Learning Center (Pre-K through 1st Grade), the Upper Elementary (2nd through 5th grades), the Middle School (6th through 8th grades), and the High School (9th through 12th grades).
Locust Grove High School is steeped in tradition. Every year the first football game of the season is Locust Grove versus Salina in the Battle of 82 (highway).
Points of interest
Locust Grove is west of the Saline Courthouse, the only remaining of nine rural 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 ...
courthouses built in the 1880s. The courthouse, near the Mayes/Delaware County line, was undergoing renovation in 2019.
The Willard Stone Museum is currently at his homeplace in Locust Grove. The museum's goal is to relocate to the historic building that housed the first bank in Locust Grove, located in downtown and built in 1912, to house the collection. In 2019, the museum's board of directors authorized build-out of the new facility, and in September 2020 launched a fundraising campaign to finance the needed renovations.
Locust Grove is directly south of Lake Hudson, southwest of Lake W. R. Holway, formerly Chimney Rock Lake, and northeast of Fort Gibson Lake
The Fort Gibson Dam is a gravity dam on the Grand (Neosho) River in Oklahoma, north of the town of Fort Gibson. The dam forms Fort Gibson Lake. The primary purposes of the dam and lake are flood control and hydroelectric power production, altho ...
.
Notable residents
* Ally Carter
Ally Carter is the pen name of Sarah Leigh Fogleman (born January 1, 1974), an American author of young adult fiction and adult-fiction novels.
Pen name
Carter chose the pen name "Ally Carter" to distinguish the books she would write under t ...
, author
* Bill Glass Jr., 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 ...
ceramic artist and sculptor
* Jeffrey Rowland
Jeffrey J. Rowland (born May 22, 1974) is the author and artist responsible for ''Wigu'' and ''Overcompensating'', two popular webcomics. Originally from Locust Grove, Oklahoma, Rowland now lives in Easthampton, Massachusetts, where he continue ...
, artist and CEO
* Willard Stone, Art Deco sculptor
External links
*
Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry
Willard Stone Museum
References
{{authority control
Towns in Oklahoma
Towns in Mayes County, Oklahoma
Indian Territory in the American Civil War
1873 establishments in Indian Territory