Boise City

History

Boise City was founded in 1908 by developers J. E. Stanley, A. J. Kline, and W. T. Douglas (all doing business as the Southwestern Immigration and Development Company of Guthrie, Oklahoma), who published and distributed brochures promoting the town as an elegant, tree-lined city with paved streets, numerous businesses, railroad service, and an artesian well. They sold 3,000 lots to buyers who discovered, on their arrival, that none of the information in the brochure was true. In addition to using false publicity, the three men did not have title to the lots they sold. Stanley and Kline were convicted of mail fraud and sent to Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. Stanley and Kline served two-year terms in the penitentiary. Douglas died of tuberculosis before beginning his sentence. Despite the fraud by the original developers, the town nevertheless took shape and was incorporated on July 20, 1925. It was speculated in Ken Burns' documentary, The Dust Bowl, that the town name was chosen as part of the original land scam to evoke a false image of the town, as boisé is French for "wooded". Boise City's prosperity in the 1930s, like that of Cimarron County generally, was severely affected by its location at the heart of the Dust Bowl region. Boise City was the location of an unusual event during World War II, when it was mistakenly bombed by a friendly U.S. bomber crew during training. The bombing occurred on July 5, 1943, around 12:30 am by a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber. This occurred because the crew performing the bombing practice missed their target in Conlen, Texas, became disoriented, flew in the wrong direction, and mistook the four lights centered around the town square of Boise City as their target. No one was injured in the attack,…

Geography

Boise City is located at (36.730115, -102.511419). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all land. Boise City experiences a semiarid climate (Köppen BSk) with mild, dry winters and long, hot, wetter summers. A large degree of diurnal temperature variation occurs year-round. According to weather data tallied between July 1, 1985, and June 30, 2015, for every location in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's official climate database, Boise City, Oklahoma, is the snowiest place in Oklahoma, with an average of 31.8 inches of snow per year.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Western Meadowlark

  Sturnella neglecta Audubon, 1844 · Aves
  403
• Eurasian Collared-Dove

  Streptopelia decaocto (Frivaldszky, 1838) · Aves
  353
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  352
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  315
• Horned Lark

  Eremophila alpestris (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  307
• Western Kingbird

  Tyrannus verticalis Say, 1823 · Aves
  217
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  201
• European Starling

  Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  201