Page Contents for Fort Towson, Oklahoma

Statistics & Facts

City Attractions

Historical Events

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Statistics & Facts

The Oklahoma state capital is Oklahoma City.
The population of Fort Towson is approximately 568 (1990), 519 (2010).
The approximate number of families is 305 (1990), 230 (2010).
The amount of land area in Fort Towson is 14.454 sq. kilometers.
The amount of surface water is 0.962 sq kilometers.
The distance from Fort Towson to Washington DC is 1118 miles.
The distance to the Oklahoma state capital is 163 miles. (as the crow flies)
Fort Towson is positioned 34.02 degrees north of the equator and 95.29 degrees west of the prime meridian.

Attractions

Fort Towson, Oklahoma is a wonderful place to live. We are famous in Oklahoma for our sports and vocational/agricultural departments in the schools! We are also well-known for the Fort Towson Military Park (The Old Fort), the Raymond Gary State Park and New Hopson Park! Although we are a little town, we have all we need and it is a great place to grow up! (submitted by a sophomore high school student at Fort Towson)

There is a wonderful museum located in the Community Center. It has many interesting collections from pioneer and early day settlers - A special Pine Belt Lumber Company picture collection, a collection from the Hopson Family, a beginning collection of early circus and show people from this area and more.
The museum is manned by volunteers and only open at special times.
We will arrange to open for tour groups, school groups, out of town visitors and tourists--NO nearby visitors unless they have special out-of-state company.
We open when there is a train trip by the Hugo Heritage Railroad group, also for special events taking place in the area. Homecoming the second weekend in June
Contacts: Marlynn O'Keefe 873-2770, June Stokes 873-2287, Peggy Wilson 873-2233 Ouida Roberts 873-2382
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Fort Towson Historical Events

1914
"The 70 ton Lima Locomotive Company's Shay Logging Locomotive Construction #2704 was built in February of 1914 for the Pine Belt Lumber Company of Fort Towson, Oklahoma, who gave her the road number 7. After serving Pine Belt for several years, she was sold to the Henderson Land & Lumber Company of Fox, Alabama." She apparently passed through several owners to her last owner, Puget Sound Pulp and Timber Company in June of 1945. page 90/91 of THE LOCOMOTIVE PORTRAITS, by Dave Bohn and Rodolfo Petschek,Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, New York, NY

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Undated
William Amos Steele, aka Smith
My great-grandfather on my father's side was named William Amos Steele. He came into this country through New York. He went to Chicago and pulled a hold-up with two or three other guys. Evidently they stashed the money because when they went to retrieve it they got into s shoot out and the others were killed. He got away with the money and went down to Missouri and joined up with the James gang. When the gang split up, he was entrusted with the money-each member changed their last name (his to Smith). He came to Fort Towson and bought a ferry service. He was married to an Indian woman who eventually poisoned him because he was a *mean old bastard*. It is said that Frank James frequently came down from Missouri to get some of the loot my great grandfather held and would stay around for a couple of weeks at a time, then go back home. My father was named William Smith or Wilkie Smith-not too certain-as he was kinda shifty also. Before he met and married my mother in Fort Towson (Katherine Mary Stewart) he was married a couple of times. When they finally split up after moving to Napa, Californie (his brother`s place), he married a couple of more times. Turns out I have four half brothers and four half sisters that I have never met.
Submitted by William Lane