In-Home Drug Testing Pond Creek, OK

Local Area Info: Pond Creek, Oklahoma

Before people of European descent came on the scene, the region around the present town of Pond Creek was traversed by many of the nomadic Native Americans of the Great Plains. Although the land is now heavily agricultural there are still traces of campsites along the numerous creeks of the drainage of the Salt Fork of the Arkansas River. When many of the Native American groups were moved onto reservations in what is now Oklahoma, towns and trading posts were established. Eventually the present-day Oklahoma was divided into Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory. The history of Pond Creek and the surrounding area can be easily confused with other streams called Pond Creek (see e.g.). The present community of Pond Creek is located in what is called the Cherokee Strip, more properly known as the Cherokee Outlet. The land at the confluence of Osage Creek and Pond Creek was known as the Pond Creek Stockade on the original Chisholm Trail used by cattle drivers bringing herds of Texas longhorns north to the railroad head first at Abilene, Kansas then later to Wichita and Caldwell. This location is about 4 miles north of the present town of Pond Creek near the present village of Jefferson. Two markers have been placed in this area commemorating the untimely demise of two cowboys. There are two granite markers placed near Pond Creek on the old Chisholm Trail.

In 1887, the Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska Railway built a branch line north-south from Caldwell, Kansas to Pond Creek in 1888. By 1893, it was incrementally built to Fort Worth, Texas. It was foreclosed on in 1891 and taken over by Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway, which shut-down in 1980. The Kansas-Texas mainline was sold to a subsidiary of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad as the Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas Railroad, merging in 1988 with Missouri Pacific Railroad, which merged in 1997 with Union Pacific Railroad. Most locals still refer to this railroad as the "Rock Island."

Pond Creek was settled as a town during the Cherokee Strip Land Run in 1893. According to the Chronicles of Oklahoma, "The government townsite of Pond Creek was first entered at 2:10 on the day of the run. By evening, it contained some 8,000 inhabitants, and boasted a good hotel, several restaurants, a dozen law offices, two general stores and six or seven grocery stores." The settlers soon found that there was not enough water to support the new town; the government had dug wells for all of the government townsites, including Pond Creek, but all the water in Pond Creek's well was quickly used up. Soldiers dug a new well but found only salt water. Water from the Salt Fork River was brought to Pond Creek and sold for five cents a cup, but it was not fit for human or animal consumption. Beer became a precious commodity, selling for fifty to seventy-five cents a bottle. Water from stagnant creek pools was given to animals. The area also experienced a violent sand storm and wildfires.