Sayre is a city in and the
county seatA county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....
of
Beckham CountyBeckham County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of 2000, the population was 19,799. Its county seat is Sayre.Founded upon statehood in 1907, Beckham County was named for J. C. W...
, in Western
OklahomaOklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
, the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It is half-way between
Oklahoma City, OklahomaOklahoma City is the capital and the largest city in the state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 31st among United States cities in population. The city's population, from the 2010 census, was 579,999, with a metro-area population of 1,252,987 . In 2010, the Oklahoma...
, and
Amarillo, TexasAmarillo is the 14th-largest city, by population, in the state of Texas, the largest in the Texas Panhandle, and the seat of Potter County. A portion of the city extends into Randall County. The population was 190,695 at the 2010 census...
on
Interstate 40Interstate 40 is the third-longest major east–west Interstate Highway in the United States, after I-90 and I-80. Its western end is at Interstate 15 in Barstow, California; its eastern end is at a concurrency of U.S. Route 117 and North Carolina Highway 132 in Wilmington, North Carolina...
and the former
U.S. Route 66U.S. Route 66 was a highway within the U.S. Highway System. One of the original U.S. highways, Route 66 was established on November 11, 1926 -- with road signs erected the following year...
. The population was 4,375 at the
2010 censusThe Twenty-third United States Census, known as Census 2010 or the 2010 Census, is the current national census of the United States. National Census Day was April 1, 2010 and is the reference date used in enumerating individuals...
.
History
After the
Civil WarThe American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Congress wanted to stimulate the economy and aid the growth of the nation. The biggest way that they achieved this was to promote the building of the western railroads. Upon completion of the Union Pacific-
Central PacificThe Central Pacific Railroad is the former name of the railroad network built between California and Utah, USA that formed part of the "First Transcontinental Railroad" in North America. It is now part of the Union Pacific Railroad. Many 19th century national proposals to build a transcontinental...
joining together in 1869 with the
Golden SpikeThe "Golden Spike" is the ceremonial final spike driven by Leland Stanford to join the rails of the First Transcontinental Railroad across the United States connecting the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads on May 10, 1869, at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory...
, other railroads trying to capitalize on commerce and trade also began crossing the western country. This included the Great Northern and Burlington in the far north, the
Southern PacificThe Southern Pacific Transportation Company , earlier Southern Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Company, and usually simply called the Southern Pacific or Espee, was an American railroad....
on the extreme southern border.
Eventually this would lead to rails crossing
Indian TerritoryThe Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...
, present day
OklahomaOklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
, around the turn of the century from the 1800s to the 1900s. A new rail line was extended from
Weatherford, OklahomaWeatherford is a city in Custer County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 10,833 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Weatherford is located at , elevation 1,647 feet ....
, to
Texola, OklahomaTexola is a town in Beckham County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 36 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Texola is located at , elevation 2,140 feet ....
, by McCabe & Steen Contractors, in July 1901. Entrepreneurs would buy land near were the new tracks where being laid, and also near a source of water. The Choctaw Town site and Improvement Company did this, and when the railroad crossed the North Fork of the
Red RiverThe Red River, or sometimes the Red River of the South, is a major tributary of the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers in the southern United States of America. The river gains its name from the red-bed country of its watershed. It is one of several rivers with that name...
in Western Indian Territory an instant town sprang up, on 14 September 1901.
The Choctaw Townsite & Improvement Company began selling lots to new
“SoonersSooners is the name given to settlers in the midwest of the United States who entered the Unassigned Lands in what is now the state of Oklahoma before President Grover Cleveland officially proclaimed them open to settlement on March 2, 1889 with the Indian Appropriations Act of 1889...
” arriving to start a new life. The seeds of new town were on, businessmen came to sell their wares to the new town folk, and within one year the town’s population was up to around 1,000. The chief engineer, and a stockholder, for the railroad gave his name to the newly formed town, Robert Heysham Sayre, of
PennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
.
The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway Company (called CRI&P), later just the
“Rock Island” or Rock Island Line, leased the new line. The Rock Island would complete their march to the Pacific by filling in the line to
Tucumcari, New MexicoTucumcari is a city in and the county seat of Quay County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 5,989 at the 2000 census. Tucumcari was founded in 1901, two years before Quay County was founded.-History:...
.
In the 1930s
U.S. Route 66U.S. Route 66 was a highway within the U.S. Highway System. One of the original U.S. highways, Route 66 was established on November 11, 1926 -- with road signs erected the following year...
, a dream forwarded by fellow Oklahoman Cyrus Avery, would come to Sayre, cementing the town’s fate to fuel the cars and feed the people exploring the country.
In 1940 film director
John FordJohn Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
would use Sayre’s Beckham County Courthouse in the film
The Grapes of WrathThe Grapes of Wrath is a 1940 drama film directed by John Ford. It was based on John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. The screenplay was written by Nunnally Johnson and the executive producer was Darryl F...
, based on the famous book by writer
John SteinbeckJohn Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
.
During the 1970s Sayre and the surrounding area would benefit from the
natural gasNatural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...
and
oilPetroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
development in the Panhandle-Hugoton field, the largest-volume gas field in the United States, and the world’s largest known source of
heliumHelium is the chemical element with atomic number 2 and an atomic weight of 4.002602, which is represented by the symbol He. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas that heads the noble gas group in the periodic table...
. Between 1973 and 1993 the field produced over 8-trillion cubic feet (230,000,000 m³) of gas.
One famous son of Sayre is balloonist
Maxie AndersonMax Leroy Anderson was an American hot air balloonist and businessman. He helped place Albuquerque on the map as the balloon capital of the world...
. Born in Sayre, during the height of the
Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, 10 September 1934, Anderson along with
Ben AbruzzoBenjamin L. Abruzzo was an American hot air balloonist and businessman. He helped increase the reputation of Albuquerque as a center of lighter-than-air and hot-air ballooning.-Biography:...
and Larry Newman were the first people to cross the
Atlantic OceanThe Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
in a balloon, the
Double Eagle IIDouble Eagle II, piloted by Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson, and Larry Newman, became the first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean when it landed 17 August 1978 in Miserey near Paris, 137 hours 6 minutes after leaving Presque Isle, Maine....
, in 1978.
Geography
Sayre is located at 35°17′56"N 99°38′12"W (35.298940, -99.636556). It is located on the North Fork of the
Red RiverThe Red River, or sometimes the Red River of the South, is a major tributary of the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers in the southern United States of America. The river gains its name from the red-bed country of its watershed. It is one of several rivers with that name...
, at an elevation of 1,800 feet (549 m). The area is dominated by low-rolling red clay hills.
According to the
United States Census BureauThe United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the city has a total area of 3.4 square miles (8.8 km²), of which, 3.4 square miles (8.8 km²) of it is land and 0.29% is water.
Demographics
As of the
censusA census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 4,114 people, 1,132 households, and 678 families residing in the city. The
population densityPopulation density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 1,215.9 people per square mile (469.9/km²). There were 1,399 housing units at an average density of 413.5 per square mile (159.8/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 74.99% White, 18.25% African American, 2.53% Native American, 0.41% Asian, 1.92% from
other racesRace and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 1.90% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 5.35% of the population.
There were 1,132 households out of which 26.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.8% were
married couplesMarriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 10.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 40.1% were non-families. 36.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 18.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.20 and the average family size was 2.87.
In the city the population was spread out with 14.6% under the age of 18, 14.0% from 18 to 24, 40.9% from 25 to 44, 16.0% from 45 to 64, and 14.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 197.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 216.8 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $21,713, and the median income for a family was $30,000. Males had a median income of $22,167 versus $18,147 for females. The
per capita incomePer capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the city was $10,378. About 15.9% of families and 20.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 26.1% of those under age 18 and 14.0% of those age 65 or over.
Educational Opportunities
National Register of Historic Places
- Beckham County Courthouse
- Sayre Champlin Service Station
- Sayre City Park
- J. S. Danner House
- Sayre Downtown Historic District
- Sayre Rock Island Depot
External links