Editing Foraker, Oklahoma (section)

==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.<ref>Morris, pp.82-83.</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://okielegacy.org/journal/ezine/?vol=0&search=1&city=Foraker&state=Oklahoma |title= The Okie Legacy: Foraker Oklahoma|website=okielegacy.org |access-date=October 29, 2011 |archive-date=June 14, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120614001940/http://okielegacy.org/journal/ezine/?vol=0&search=1&city=Foraker&state=Oklahoma |url-status=dead }}{{title missing|date=May 2022}}</ref>

The agriculture boom subsided, but the town was briefly revitalized by discovery of the [[Burbank, Oklahoma|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, Oklahoma|Shidler]], ten miles away, making Foraker an oil shipping point. The population rose to about 2,000 in the early 1920s.<ref>"The Spell of the West." http://www.jcs-group.com/ldwest/towns/okie2.html{{Dead link|date=December 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, accessed February 25, 2011</ref> The Osage County oil boom declined during the [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]], 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.<ref name = "EOHC-Foraker" />