Jim Thorpe Home - Yale, OK
Posted by: 
hamquilter
N 36° 06.909 W 096° 41.439
14S E 707850 N 3999190
The historic home of Jim Thorpe is owned by the Oklahoma Historical Society and operated as a museum.
Waymark Code: WMZT1E
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Date Posted: 12/31/2018
Views: 2
The Jim Thorpe Home is currently a museum. A wood sign shows it is open Friday and Saturday 10:00-5:00 and Sunday 1:00-5:00,. Their phone number is 918-387-2815.
This is a small home very typical of its day. It is a one-story, frame 5-room home with clapboard painted gray. The roof is gabled, and a covered front porch leads to a wood-door entrance flanked by double hung windows. A wood outhouse is also located on this property. The house was placed on the National Register in 1971. The Thorpes bought the home in 1917 for $2,800 and lived into it until they sold it in 1923. It was obtained by the Oklahoma Historical Society in 1968 and was refurbished and made into a museum.
The museum contains furniture and household items typical of its era, including some of the original items owned by Jim Thorpe. It also contains artifacts and memorabilia of Jim Thorpe and his career. The website shown below has his life story and beautiful photos of the inside of the museum.
Jim Thorpe (5/28/1888 - 3/28/1953) was of mixed Native American and white ancestry. He was raised as a Sac and Fox, and named Wa-Tho-Huk, roughly translated as "Bright Path". Untrained, he was a natural athlete and the first Olympic competitor to win both the pentathlon and decathlon. He later went on to play professional baseball, football and basketball. He was thought of as the world's greatest athlete of his time.