redfork
History of Red Fork
South and West of Red Fork was unsettled country. The Dalton gang and other outlaws frequented the area. The Daltons once raided H. C. Hall's store at Red Fork.

Red Fork was a sleepy village of about 75 people in 1901 when oil was discovered on an allotment owned by Sue Davis Bland. The new shallow oil field attracted great attention. Within a few months, the population of Red Fork exploded to 1500.

Red Fork was incorporated in 1902 with an original town site of 160 acres. Nice homes began to replace crude shacks where oil prospectors had lived. O. B. Jones began a weekly newspaper, Red Fork Derrick. A Presbyterian church housed the town's first school.

Red Fork's growth was stunted when the Frisco Railroad extended its line farther west. With the establishment of Sapulpa, cattle shipments and trade were diverted from Red Fork. With the oil strike at Glenn Pool, oil men left Red Ford, leaving the town with only three hundred inhabitants.

The cowboys and oil field workers who lived in Red Fork gave it a rowdy reputation that lingered for decades. Known as one of Tulsa County's safest areas, legend has it that Red Fork residents like for outsiders to believe its old reputation - it keeps outsiders from moving in.

In 1918, new life was breathed into Red Fork when the Tulsa-Sapulpa Interurban line was built. Workers at large industrial plants in west Tulsa saw Red Fork as a good place to live. Soon, Red Fork had an accredited high school, an active chamber of commerce, and had grown to a thriving city of 2,000 people.

The Red Fork post office was closed on July 31, 1928. After the community was annexed to the City of Tulsa. The post office became Red Fork Station Tulsa's post office.

Little remains of what became a booming cattle shipping point and oil boom town. Lookout Mountain, known by old-timers as Red Fork Mountain, looms over the original downtown area of Red Fork. A stretch of Interstate 244, built in the 1970s, splits in half the old Red Fork business district."
Do You Remember
1. The Cove Theater -- cost 10cents to get in except on Saturday it costs 25 cents but there were 4 movies, several cartoons, and a serial. You also got either a bag of popcorn or a popsicle when you went in.

2. The 3 drug stores -- one was the Crown -- one was Dooley's -- and the Red Fork Drug  At the crown if you wet the end of your straw-shot it up and stick it on the ceiling, and it's still there the next day you got a free fountain drink.

3. The 3 restaurants -- Kempers, which was a donut shop before it became a restaurant, Beard's and a third on down toward Webster across the Railroad tracks and Sapulpa Rd. (now it's SW Blvd.) I can't remember the name but the owner's name was "Shine"  -- Then of course there was Bundy burgers in Carbondale, the Hamburger King in West Tulsa, D&D barbecue in West Tulsa and Alberty's across from the auditorium with their famous Hot Meat Sandwich. recipe    Also the cafeteria with their bean chowder. recipe

  kempers1 kempers2

Photo's of Kempers restaurant (courtesy of Dale Kemper)(class of 53)

4. The Crystal City Amusement Park before it became a shopping center -- with the original Zingo roller coaster and the giant swimming pool. Sometime in the 50's the amusement park closed and they started to build the Shopping Center.
  zingoold
5. More memories from Phyllis Wolfe Swift
    A. The Silver Castle Restaurant in West Tulsa
    B.  Lotta Burger in West Tulsa (which is still there) there is also one on 33rd just of Crystal City
    C. Glencliff Ice Cream store on the NW corner of 23rd and SW Blvd.
    D. Casa Loma Ballroom at Crystal City amusement Park just west of the pool
    E. Hernando's Hideaway just West of 33rd and SW Blvd.

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