Fleetwood, OK - Ghost Towns on Waymarking.com

Travelers along US 81 will spot a couple of brown "Chisholm Trail Centennial Corridor Historic Site" signs in Terral, pointing the way here. Fleetwood can be reached from Terral by following Apache Road about five miles east, with the road's alternately being identified as "Fleetwood Road" and "E 2150 Road." It is an easy drive, and all three major sites are easy to locate, but be aware of road conditions where mud can bring a halt to your trip in a hurry.

The first site you'll reach from Terral is the site of the old store. There is a historical marker -- virtually all the markers in Fleetwood are identified as being placed by "Historical Society of Fleetwood/Terral Indian Territory, Okla." -- guarded by a pipe fence, providing some background:

Fleetwood Townsite

Established in the 1880's by Houston F. Fleetwood who settled here in 1878. He built the first store and post office here.

He grubstaked half the neighborhood and with his aid started many prosperous farmers, ranchers and business men.

The town had a cotton gin, blacksmith shop, and school house that served as a community church for the Methodist and Baptists.

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There are no signs forbidding trespass, but the old store is behind barbed wire, and Mother Nature may have some of her creations hiding in the brush. Be careful, be respectful. There was another marker here at one time, near the store's entry, and it disappeared sometime between late 2014 and early 2016. It said:

Fleetwood Store and Post Office
Established by Houston F. Fleetwood

The first store was built here in the 1880's, moved by Fleetwood from south of his home site because the cattle of the trail drive caused too much commotion for business as usual.

This store became the first post office of the Indian Territory. It remained open until 1980.

In later years the store was bought by O. C. Walker and W. L. Weatherly then by Hugh Weatherly who kept it open until 1946. Olin Weatherly bought the store in 1946 and operated it until it closed in 1981.

The original wood building was torn down in 1935 and the present building was built in 1935. This building was destroyed by fire in the early forties and rebuilt as it is today.

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Continuing east, you'll come to two more historical markers. One indicates that you are near where the Chisholm Trail crossed into Indian Territory back in the day, and the other notes that the Fleetwood school was here:

Old Chisholm Trail Crossing Red River
Fleetwood Terral Indian Territory

Looking southeast is Red River Station in Texas -- the Chisholm Trail entered there and came out in Indian Territory here at the Fleetwood community.

Millions of cattle crossed here on their way from Texas to Abilene, Kansas and other points off the Chisholm Trail. The cattle were so thick at times in the river crossing that a cowboy could walk across the river on their backs.

Northwest of the site on the I.C. McGinnis land in a branch of Fleetwood Creek are wagon wheel ruts in sandstone that are very destinct [sic] today.

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Fleetwood School

Built in 1880's on this site just south of the road. This building served as the school and community church for the Methodist and Baptist.

The school was closed in 1927 as a high school and the students attended the Terral School. The grammar school here closed in 1935.

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The final stop is the Fleetwood Family Cemetery, located on N 2890 Road just south of its intersection with E 2150 Road (which you've been traveling). Houston Fleetwood, his wife, Emily -- a centenarian and benefactor to Terral -- their daughter, Ella May, and two seemingly-unrelated children are buried here, their headstones visible in the tall brush. Please be considerate of the rights of the property owners when visiting, and note that the cemetery, protected by a fence, is out in the middle of a pasture in a grove of trees. There is plenty of parking in front of the gate. Don't bother the cattle -- visit the cemetery on a day when they're not hanging around by the fence -- although they might be happy to see you while you stand by the fence and look out towards where the cattle used to cross the Red River southeast of here at Red River Station during the days of the Chisholm Trail.

There are two historical markers here, one old and another more recent:

Founded about 1880 by Houston F. Fleetwood. The first settler who came here from Wynnewood, Oklahoma in 1878 as a Chickasaw Indian, he took up his Indian rights to a large area from the river east and west that included the town site.

This cemetary [sic] was in the backyard of the spacious home Fleetwood built here. He also built a trading post south of this site right in the middle of the Chisholm Trail. Later this store was moved to the present site west of here.

Fleetwood was waylaid in the river bottom in 1888 and died a few days later in his home.

The second marker shows a Chisholm Trail map, and features an inset with a photo of a store on the Buffalo Ranch, a store similar to the one that Mr. Fleetwood built:

Fleetwood Store & Family Cemetery

Two miles to the southwest, the cattle road crossed the Red River at Red River Station and passed here as it climbed out of the Red River Valley and headed to the northwest on its way to Abilene and other points off the trail. By the late 1870's or early 1880's, the Fleetwood family established a store (similar to the one pictured above in 1867) at this site to sell to drovers and other travelers. Local tradition says the Fleetwoods tired of the noise and commotion and moved the store ¾ mile west where it grew into a small community that survived into the 1930's. More likely, traffic declined by the mid 1880's and the Fleetwoods moved to a better location. All that remains today is the family cemetery located in the grove of trees visible a hundred yards to the east.

(Image: Courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society)
Oklahoma '07 Centennial

Reason for Abandonment: Economic Date Abandoned: 01/01/1940 Related Web Page: [Web Link]

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