Nescatunga is an unincorporated

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

(CDP) in 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 adjacent to

Great Salt Plains State Park Great Salt Plains State Park is a List of Oklahoma state parks, Oklahoma state park located in Alfalfa County, Oklahoma, Alfalfa County, Oklahoma. It is located north of Jet, Oklahoma on SH-38 and east of Cherokee, Oklahoma, Cherokee.

. The population was 90 at the time of the 2020 Census, up from the population of 70 reported in the 2010 census.

History

Sans Orielle, an

Osage Indian The Osage Nation ( ) () is a Midwestern Native American nation of the Great Plains. The tribe began in the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys around 1620 A.D along with other groups of its language family, then migrated west in the 17th cen ...

, along with other members of his tribe guided Indian Agent Major George C. Sibley and his party from

Fort Osage Fort Osage (also known as Fort Clark or Fort Sibley) was an early 19th-century factory trading post run by the United States Government in western Missouri on the American frontier; it was located in present-day Sibley, Missouri. The Treaty ...

, Missouri, to the Great Salt Plains area of present-day Alfalfa county in 1811. The Sibley party members are believed to have been the first white men to set sight on the salt plains, which Sibley called the Grand Saline. The

Salt Fork of the Arkansas River The Salt Fork of the Arkansas River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 31, 2011 tributary of the Arkansas River in southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma Ok ...

, flowing through the plains, was known by the Osages as ''Nescatunga'' - meaning 'big salt water'. Nescatunga is adjacent to the Great Salt Plains Reservoir located on the Salt Fork of the Arkansas River. The creation of the dam and reservoir was a

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wor ...

’ project in the late 1930s and early 1940s. It was completed in July, 1941 at a cost of $4.6 million.

Geography

Nescatunga is located in eastern Alfalfa County. It is near the outlet of the Great Salt Plains Lake on the Salt Fork of the Arkansas River and is adjacent to Great Salt Plains State Park. Oklahoma State Highway 38 runs through the center of the community, leading south to Jet, the nearest incorporated town. Nescatunga'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 ...

CDP has a total area of , all of it land.

Demographics

References

Census-designated places in Alfalfa County, Oklahoma Census-designated places in Oklahoma {{Oklahoma-geo-stub

History

Geography

Demographics

See also

References