Located just east of Roosevelt are the remains of the community of Cooperton, Oklahoma. Planned by Confederate Officer George Cooper, the town grew to almost 200 residents when the land was first opened for settlement. Today some geologists believe that the town site sits atop the the line that delineates the very edge of North America's ancient Ice Age. Parallel lines cut into the earth's surface in the area, combined with deforested hills on one side of Cooperton's valley and the heavily forested Wichita mountains on the other side are thought to be evidence of receding ice masses in prehistoric times. In addition, during the 1960s a local resident found the fossilized skeletal remains of a prehistoric mammoth at the Cooperton Mammoth site.
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| A different "Longhorn" - the Mammoth |
But the dream of developing the town of Cooperton has now virtually "died." The population has declined to a total of merely 18 residents (as of 2009), and it is sometimes listed as one of the state's "ghost towns". A website dedicated to documenting many abandoned places in the state of Oklahoma (abandonedok.com) has preserved some haunting images of dreams that have been lost in Cooperton, shown below.
The remains of a Cooperton farm:
The Cooperton town Bank office:
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| The Bank in Cooperton |
And, an empty farm house:
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| Abandoned Home |
But the area around Cooperton was not only on the edge of the prehistoric Ice Age, it also sat near the edge of the site of a notorious camping site where Kiowa people would gather fruit, fish and set out on Buffalo hunts. It was near the place in Kiowa County where Rainy Mountain Creek joins the Washita River.
5 comments:
Wow, judging from the size of the bank, it doesn't seem like they were planning on ever getting too big.
Spooky, especially the last picture. Sometimes I'm afraid that in a few years time all banks will look like the one in Cooperton...
Funny! Yes, this bank may be a foreshadowing! I used to work for a big financial institution that has since disappeared. At that time our policy was to pay customers to bring us their money. Now I think they want customers to pay the banks to be able to put their money in. Scarey times.
This picture also makes me think the old time bank robbers didn't have such a difficult job!
I am always intrigued by abandoned buildings. I try to picture them in their glory. Those folks must not have been big into banking if that bank was all they needed. Gret photos.
It's sad to see my hometown of Cooperton in such sad shape. I remember two auto (and tractor) repair shops, a general store, a post office,three churches,a domino hall, two gas stations and an old feed store. I graduated from Cooperton Schools in 1964 and we lost our high school after the class of 1965 graduated.
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