Скачать или смотреть The ghost town of Nelagoney, Oklahoma

Nelagoney, called Ne Log ny which meant "good water" in the Osage language, was a camp location used by the Osage indians. This same trail was later used by cowboys herding cattle north. The long horns driven up from Texas lost significant weight on the journey and were fattened on the bluestem grass of the nearby tall grass praire. Originally this land could be rented for 4 cents an acre. The governement later jumped the price to 15 cents an acre, which caused and uproar with most of cattlemen, claiming the price hike would bankrupt them. One enterprising cattleman snatched up large sections at the 15 cent price. By the time the others realized what he had done, they had to sublease from him, for prices as high as 50 cents an acre.

With the Osage allotment beginning in 1906, the large cattle leases effectively came to an end by decade. A small community formed around the cattle drives, and with the arrival of the Katy (MK&T) railroad in 1903, followed by the Midland Valley in 1905, the town had grown enough to establish a post office on December 1st, 1906, with A.E. Selby as the first postmaster.

A joint depot was built and Nelagoney became a shipping point for cattle, with the town prosperering in the early part of the 20th century. A tornado struck the town in June of 1912, signficantly damaging many businesses and homes. The town dusted itself off, rebuilt and continued on.

As rail expanded further in the region and into Texas, Nelagoney's importance as a cattle shipping center waned and the town began to decline. There was a brief respite in the early 1920s with the discovery of oil in the region, but it was short lived. By 1924, the First State Bank had moved to the nearby town of Barnsdale, changing it's name to the Bank of Commerce, only to fail in December of 1925.

The post officially closed on February 28th, 1959. Passenger rail service had been dropped in the early 1940s, and the rail line was completely abandoned by 1974. The school was closed in 1968, consolidating with the Barnsdall school district. The original Indian and cattle camp, located where the rail depot had stood, are long gone. The abandoned shells of what had once been the business district stand as silent history of what once was.