Editing Minco, Oklahoma (section)

==History ==
Present-day Minco began as a settlement named Silver City on the [[Chisholm Trail]]. The community was initially a collection of tents housing Caddo, Wichita, Kiowa, and Comanche tribesmen.<ref name="EOHC-Minco">[http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=MI037 Jackson, Gwen. "Minco." ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture''] Accessed June 15, 2018.</ref> It was approximately {{convert|7|miles|km}} east of the present-day location. After the Rock Island extended its railroad track to the Chisholm Trail, the town physically moved to the end of the rail line and renamed itself Minco.<ref name= "Nelson"/>

The town was originally included in the [[Chickasaw Nation]]. Minco is believed to be named after the great Chickasaw chief and warrior, ''Itawamba Minco'',{{efn|Minco is said to mean "Big Chief" in the Choctaw language.<ref name= "Nelson"/> The ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture'' says it simply means "chief."<ref name="EOHC-Minco"/>}} who later acquired the name of [[Levi Colbert]], and who resided on Chickasaw land in [[Mississippi]], near [[Cotton Gin Port, Mississippi|Cotton Gin Port]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.minco-ok.com/minco/ |title=Minco Community Page |access-date=2008-12-14}}</ref>
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Minco was officially settled sometime ''circa'' 1890, several years before Oklahoma achieved statehood. The post office opened in July 1890.<ref name="EOHC-Minco"/>

In its early stages, Minco was a very busy town because of its location at the end of the [[Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad]] until the railroad was extended further south two years later.<ref name=remember>{{cite web |url=http://files.usgwarchives.net/ok/grady/newspapers/remember.txt |title=Do You Remember When? |access-date=2008-12-14 |author=GG Williams |year=1969}}</ref> Charles B. Campbell owned the occupancy rights of the land that the town was built on. His wife was Miss Maggie (Margaret) Williams, a daughter of W. G. (Caddo Bill) Williams, owner of the Half Moon Ranch, who started Silver City in 1872, by building a trading store for those cattlemen driving their herds of cattle up the Chisholm Trail.<ref name=remember />

Before the establishment of Minco as a town, three major expeditions passed through the area. The first expedition was conducted by Captain [[Randolph B. Marcy]] in 1849.{{efn|Marcy later became famous for his 1859 book, ''The Prairie Traveler: A Handbook for Overland Expeditions, with Maps, Illustrations, and Itineraries of the Principal Routes between the Mississippi and the Pacific''. During the Civil War, he served as chief of staff to [[George A. Custer]], who had married a daughter of Marcy, then was appointed as Inspector General of the U.S. Army, and was ultimately promoted to full general in 1877.}} Marcy was ordered to escort 1,500 individuals headed to the [[California Gold Rush|California gold fields]]. When the expedition approached the Minco area they kept to the south side of Buggy Creek, which Marcy named "Deer Creek". Marcy named his route the Fort Smith to Santa Fe Trail. There was a road established in 1839-1840 on the north side of the [[Canadian River]], that was also named the Fort Smith to Santa Fe Trail. This road had been laid out by Josiah Gregg, a [[Santa Fe, New Mexico|Santa Fe]] merchant who had connections with merchants in [[Fort Smith, Arkansas]].

During the summer of 1853, the first railroad survey was conducted from Fort Smith to [[Los Angeles]] by Lt. Amiel Weeks Whipple. Whipple's survey followed Marcy's route from Fort Smith, until they reached the [[Caddo County, Oklahoma|Caddo County]] Buttes. At that point the expedition moved westward, whereas Marcy had turned north to join the Fort Smith to the [[Santa Fe Trail]], not far north of [[Hydro, Oklahoma|Hydro]]. Whipple continued westward, leaving Oklahoma just west of the Antelope Hills in present-day [[Roger Mills County, Oklahoma|Roger Mills County]].

The Rock Island Railroad Co.'s original purpose in extending the railroad to Minco was to provide a gateway for the shipping of cattle from the grazing lands of the Chickasaw Nation, just to the south of the town. On August 4, 1901, the Chickasaw Nation's land was opened to white settlement, making Minco a railroad hub for the entire region.<ref name=remember />

On October 14, 1901, local citizens formed a company for the purpose of selling vacant lots in the town to encourage settlement. It was known as the Minco Townsite and Investment Company.<ref name="remember"/>

Minco was originally composed mainly of merchants who provided supplies for the many travelers that used the railroad infrastructure of the town. It is the oldest town in the western part of Oklahoma, so its many businesses served residents for many miles around. The hardware store and tin shop originally opened by Kirk Woodworth in 1891 is still in existence. The remains of some of the hotels that were used by the many temporary residents stand along its Main Street.<ref name=remember />

In September 1894 Meta Chestnutt, a teacher from [[North Carolina]] who was determined to bring education to the frontier, specifically to [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]], along with the services of J.H. Bond, established the El Meta Bond College, one of the first of its kind in the area. The college offered elementary, grammar, and high school courses along with some music and drama courses. Having faced economic troubles for the whole of its existence, it was decommissioned in 1920 due to decreasing enrollment after the arrival of newer educational institutions that came with statehood. After the demolition of the old school building, a modern masonry armory was constructed in 1936 and today serves as a community gathering center. A community park occupies part of the old campus. In this park there is a plaque commemorating Meta Chestnutt and her contributions to the school.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~minco/fotos/el_meta_bond_college.htm |title='Chickasha Daily Express' |author=Ralph Marsh |date=June 3, 1958 |access-date=2008-12-14}}</ref>

In 1960, the first municipal [[natural gas]] company in Oklahoma was founded in Minco by James Burton Branum, Jr. It operated along with the Minco Tag Agency from an office in the back of what was then Branum's Variety Store on Main street.<ref>http://www.manta.com/c/mm0094s/minco-gas-authority {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://9.jmb.mx/jmb_family_history/jbb1/|title=James Burton Branum, Jr. &#124;}}</ref>

In 2007, the Minco Historical Society established a museum to exhibit the numerous historical facts associated with the town.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.minco-ok.com/history/|title = MInco Historical Society}}</ref>