Foraker

History

Located in an area of rolling plains and tallgrass prairie, a post office was established at Foraker on February 13, 1903. The town began as a 160-acre tract platted by the U.S. Department of the Interior along the Midland Valley Railroad in 1905. By 1909, the town had a population of 500 as the area underwent a ranching and farming boom. Foraker had the amenities associated with older communities: sidewalks, a public park, and plans for an electric and water system and a substantial school building. The agriculture boom subsided, but the town was briefly revitalized by discovery of the Burbank Oil Field in 1920, which made Foraker an oil industry equipment supply center. In 1922 the Osage Railway, one of the Muskogee Roads, was opened from Foraker to Shidler, ten miles away, making Foraker an oil shipping point. The population rose to about 2,000 in the early 1920s. The Osage County oil boom soon declined and with it Foraker's fortunes. The population dropped. The Osage Valley railroad was abandoned in 1953 and the Midland Valley Railroad was abandoned in 1968. The town business district fell vacant. Foraker is now in a region dominated by large cattle ranches. A lonely and picturesque old cemetery in the prairie approximately one mile east of what remains of the town is the chief landmark. The nearest post office is at Shidler.

Geography

Foraker is north and west of Pawhuska and north and east of Shidler.

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• WARD ES
  Elementary · Shidler · 95 students · 10.6:1 ratio
• SHIDLER HS
  High · Shidler · 63 students · 12.6:1 ratio
• SHIDLER MS
  Middle · Shidler · 51 students · 17:1 ratio