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The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

NORTH FORK TOWN.

An important settlement in the Creek Nation, Indian Territory, North Fork Town was located approximately three miles east of present Eufaula in McIntosh County. Situated within the fork of the Canadian and North Canadian rivers, the townsite is now inundated by Lake Eufaula. Because the Texas and California roads intersected there, the community prospered as a trade center.

Founded by Creek Indians during the mid-1830s, North Fork Town hosted numerous intertribal councils. During the Gold Rush of 1849 it served as a rendezvous for travelers headed west along the California Road. Forty-niners purchased supplies, horses, and mules from local merchants. Asbury Mission, a Methodist boarding school, opened northeast of town in 1850, and a community post office was established in 1853. The latter was designated Micco, another name by which North Fork Town was subsequently known. Albert Pike, Confederate commissioner to Indian Territory, negotiated alliance treaties with the Creek, Choctaw, and Chickasaw at North Fork Town in July 1861. The settlement served as a Confederate supply base during the Civil War.

The Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway bypassed North Fork Town in 1872. A depot was built at present Eufaula, and North Fork Town businesses were relocated there. The Micco post office closed in 1873. Homes and a cemetery marked the townsite before Lake Eufaula's impoundment.

Jon D. May

Bibliography

Angie Debo, The Road to Disappearance: A History of the Creek Indians (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1941).

Carolyn Thomas Foreman, "North Fork Town," The Chronicles of Oklahoma 29 (Spring 1951).

Grant Foreman, Down the Texas Road: Historic Places Along Highway 69 Through Oklahoma (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1936).

John W. Morris, Ghost Towns of Oklahoma (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1977).

"North Fork Town," Vertical File, Research Division, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City.

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Citation

The following (as per The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition) is the preferred citation for articles:
Jon D. May, “North Fork Town,” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=NO011.

Published January 15, 2010

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