Mountain Park is a town in Kiowa 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 320 as of the 2020 United States census.

History

The town of Mountain Park began as a trading post named Burford, near the

Wichita Mountains The Wichita Mountains are located in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It is the principal relief system in the Southern Oklahoma Aulacogen, being the result of a failed continental rift. The mountains are a northwest-south ...

in southern

Oklahoma Territory The Territory of Oklahoma was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 2, 1890, until November 16, 1907, when it was joined with the Indian Territory under a new constitution and admitted to the Union as ...

. A post office was established at Burford in August 1901, just after the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache Reservation opened for settlement by non-Indians. In February 1902, the town that had sprung up around the trading post and changed its name to Mountain Park. Fires destroyed most of the wood-frame buildings along Main Street in 1906 and 1908. The town rebuilt with all brick structures. According to ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture'', the

Oklahoma City and Western Railroad The Oklahoma City and Western Railroad, together with its affiliate the Oklahoma City and Texas Railroad, built a line from Oklahoma City through Lawton, Oklahoma and on to Quanah, Texas in the 1901-1903 timeframe. By the time of its completion, t ...

offered Mountain Park resident Sol Bracken six thousand dollars for a tract on which to build a station. Bracken refused the offer as insufficient and demanded more money. Instead, company officials rerouted their railroad through the town of Snyder, two miles south of Mountain Park. As a result, 41 of the 47 businesses in Mountain Park promptly moved to Snyder. By statehood in 1907, Mountain Park had 381 residents. In 1910, it was named the county seat of the short-lived Swanson County. That county was abolished in the following year. The local economy was based on cotton and wheat production, as well as granite quarrying. The population rose to 459 by 1930. Census population peaked at 557 in 1980. On March 7, 2008,

KSWO-TV KSWO-TV (channel 7) is a television station licensed to Lawton, Oklahoma, United States, serving the western Texoma area as an affiliate of ABC and Telemundo. It is owned by Gray Media, which maintains a shared services agreement (SSA) with ...

reported that the former town clerk was fired for allegedly secretly embezzling $100,000 over a period of two years, leaving the town unable to pay its bills and forcing it to raise utility rates for residents.

Geography

Mountain Park is located south of

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, east of

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and west of Lawton. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the town has a total area of , all land.

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 390 people, 174 households, and 103 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 210 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 90.00%

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 ...

, 0.51%

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, 1.79% Native American, 0.26% Asian, 2.82% from other races, and 4.62% from two or more races.

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or Latino of any race were 5.38% of the population. There were 174 households, out of which 23.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.7% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 9.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 40.8% were non-families. 35.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 16.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.24 and the average family size was 2.87. In the town, the population was spread out, with 24.4% under the age of 18, 6.4% from 18 to 24, 23.1% from 25 to 44, 27.2% from 45 to 64, and 19.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.7 males. The median income for a household in the town was $17,031, and the median income for a family was $19,375. Males had a median income of $23,750 versus $25,625 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the town was $9,584. About 29.4% of families and 36.5% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 54.6% of those under age 18 and 22.9% of those age 65 or over.

Economy

Agriculture has supported the town's economy since its inception.

References

{{authority control Former county seats in Oklahoma Towns in Kiowa County, Oklahoma Towns in Oklahoma