NEWKIRK

A short history of Newkirk

Newkirk is on land known as the Cherokee Outlet (popularly called the "Cherokee Strip"), which belonged to the Cherokee Indians until 1893. The Cherokee acquiesced to the demand of the president and Department of the Interior to sell the land, then part of Oklahoma Territory, to the U.S. government. Efforts to buy the land from the Cherokee began in 1889, but were not concluded until 1893 when Congress authorized the purchase and the land was opened to non-Indian settlement by means of the Cherokee Strip Land Run on September 16, 1893. An estimated 100,000 people raced to claim plots of land.

The town of Newkirk had been laid out before the run by the government as the county seat of “K” county. It was named Lamoreaux after Silas W. Lamoreaux, who was commissioner of the General Land Office. Two miles north of Lamoreaux was Kirk, a Santa Fe Railroad cattle-shipping station.

That first day of the land run, 5,000 people staked claims in and near Lamoreaux. Claimants were allowed two town lots: one for a home and one for a business. In designated rural areas, claimants could select 160 acres. The population quickly dropped to about 2,100 as disappointed land seekers left. A town government was organized and among the first items of business was to change the name of the town from Lamoreaux to Santa Fe, but the railroad rejected the name as several other places were named Santa Fe. Meanwhile, the railroad station at Kirk had been closed, so the name Newkirk was chosen on November 8, 1893.

In 1901, Newkirk suffered a major reversal when nearly a whole block of its thriving downtown burned. The wooden buildings that burned were mostly replaced with stone buildings from the distinctive yellow limestone quarried four miles east of Newkirk. "Imposing stone buildings began to give dignity and permanence to the dusty streets, while wood-frame homes gradually replaced the 'proving-up' homes of the Run. Young Elms, Cottonwoods, shrubs, and flowers began to change the once treeless prairies into shaded garden spots." Newkirk's business district was placed on the National Register as a historic district in 1984.

After Oklahoma became a state in 1907, Newkirk, Blackwell, and Ponca City vied to become the county seat. An election on September 3, 1908, gave Blackwell 2,038 votes, Newkirk 2,063, and Ponca City 1,388. Governor Haskell declared Newkirk the winner. Blackwell sued, but lost, and Newkirk retained the title. The present Kay County courthouse was built in 1926, replacing the original 1894 wooden structure that had burned.

In 1992, Newkirk became the first small town to receive the Oklahoma Main Street Award. Newkirk was also the name of the town in the movie Twister's drive-in movie scene, though it was filmed in Guthrie, Oklahoma.

The Kay County Courthouse in Newkirk was constructed in 1925 -1926, and at almost 100 years of age the original courthouse had many problems that were addressed by a new annex announced by the Kay County Board of Commissioners in 2020. Some of those problems included a leaking roof, electrical and plumbing problems, as well as a lack of space for the district court system. To expand the court system, all other county offices were relocated to the Annex, leaving the Courthouse only for the court system.

Adapted (trimmed) from the Wikipedia article Newkirk, Oklahoma, revision 1376927794 by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.