Editing Helena, Oklahoma (section)

==History==
In June 1915, Helen S. Monroe received a postal designation for Helena.<ref name="Helena EOH&C">{{cite web|last1=Everett|first1=Dianna|title=Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Helena|url=http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=HE011|website=Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture|publisher=Oklahoma Historical Society|access-date=January 28, 2016}}</ref><ref name="OPN-Helena">{{cite book|last1=Shirk|first1=George H.|title=Oklahoma Place Names|date=March 15, 1987|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|isbn=0-8061-2028-2|page=113|edition=First Paperback, 1987}}</ref>  Monroe became the first postmaster and the town's namesake.<ref name="OPN-Helena"/>

Shortly after the [[Cherokee Outlet]] opened to settlement, numerous small communities emerged in what was then southwestern [[Woods County, Oklahoma|Woods County]] (now Alfalfa county).  When the Arkansas Valley and Western Railway survey bypassed the nearby settlement of Carwile, those residents began migrating closer to the proposed railroad, near where H. H. Anderson had established a store around 1896. The townsite was laid out nearby in 1902, and the village was incorporated the following year, by which time the population was 160.<ref name="Helena EOH&C"/>

The Woods County High School, one of only two in [[Oklahoma Territory]] at that time, was constructed in 1903 and opened in 1904 with 400 students.  On January 6, 1904, the Arkansas Valley and Western Railway (part of the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway system) reached Helena.  Growing fast, by mid-1905 it was estimated that 700 residents supported two banks, two schools, two newspapers, four grain elevators, a flour mill, and two lumberyards.  By 1909, there were [[Baptist]], [[Christian churches and churches of Christ|Christian]], [[Methodist]], and [[Presbyterian]] churches.  The 1910 census showed 760 residents, a number which had increased to 776 by 1940.<ref name="Helena EOH&C"/>

===Mammoth===
In July 2013, the remains of a [[mammoth]] were found two miles northwest of Helena by workers of Access Midstream, a [[natural gas]] provider, on land owned by brothers Dr. Michael Thorp and Tom Thorp. [[Oklahoma State University]] geographer Carlos Cordova, and geography doctoral student Tom Cox excavated the site from September 2013 until October 2013.<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Cox |first=Thomas |date=July 2014 |title=Spatial and Geomorphological Analysis of Mammoth Localities in Western Oklahoma |publisher=Oklahoma State University| pages= iv, 29 | url= https://shareok.org/bitstream/handle/11244/14784/Cox_okstate_0664M_13494.pdf;sequence=1}}</ref> Oklahoma State University has plans to display the mammoth, which was donated by the Thorp's.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Holcomb|first1=Shelly|title=Digging For Treasure|url=https://news.okstate.edu/articles/digging-treasure|access-date=April 24, 2017|work=Oklahoma State University - News and Information|issue=Fall 2014|publisher=Oklahoma State University|date=July 15, 2015|language=en}}</ref>