Centennial - City of Alva, Oklahoma - Community Commemoration on Waymarking.com

County of mark: Woods County
Location of mark: College Ave & Barnes St., courthouse lawn, Alva
Mark erected by: City of Alva, Oklahoma; Alva Monument, Inc.; Designed and Carved: Susan Dunn, Mark Frickson, Atlene Rankin, Buddy Sams

Marker Text;

"The lands acquired by the congressional acts of March 2, 1889, March 3, 1891, and March 3, 1893, were divided into counties by the secretary of the interior, as required by section 10 of the March 1893 act before opening them to settlement. Thus, officials in the nation's capital formed Woods County as M County prior to the opening of the Cherokee Outlet. M County's name was changed to Woods by popular vote on November 6, 1894. The Democrats submitted the name "Banner," claiming that it was the banner county of the territory. The Republicans proposed "Flynn" to honor the territory's Congressional Delegate Dennis T. Flynn. The Populists advocated "Wood" to honor Sam Wood, a renowned Kansas Populist. However, Wood's name appeared as Woods on the ballot, and the secretary of the election committee misidentified Wood as Woods in his election report. The full committee also failed to notice the error before the report was published, and meeting later they "decided to keep the s for euphony sake."

"Alva was designated as the county seat for M County by the secretary of the interior and also was designated as one of the four district land offices for the Outlet. The town remained the county seat despite numerous efforts to secure a more, centralized county seat during the territorial period." ~ Oklahoma Historical Society

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