Editing Morrison, Oklahoma (section)

==History==
Morrison is located in the former [[Cherokee Outlet]], which was created for the [[Cherokee Nation]] in 1835 from former Osage hunting grounds. The Outlet was opened to non-Indian settlement by the [[Land Run of 1893|Cherokee Strip Land Run]] in September 1893.<ref>[http://www.okhistory.org/okjourneys/cherokeestriprun.html Oklahoma Historical Society]</ref> The Morrison community emerged in 1894 on land that was once the [[Osage Tribe|Osage tribe]]'s hunting grounds.

Roselda Morrison, wife of James Morrison, owned the land upon which the town emerged. Nearby, a man named Autry (for whom the township was named) built a store, which received a postal designation as Autry in 1893.  The post office was renamed Morrison in February 1894, after James Morrison bought the store. Morrison donated {{convert|40|acres|ha}} for a town, which was surveyed and platted in August 1894. The town of Morrison incorporated on August 13, 1894.<ref name="EOHC-Morrison" />

The Morrison business district moved a short distance south in 1902, when the Arkansas Valley and Western Railroad (after 1907 a part of the [[St. Louis and San Francisco Railway]] system, or Frisco,) surveyed its Tulsa-Pawnee-Perry-Enid line. The railroad laid its tracks through the town in the same year. With railroad access, Morrison became an agricultural center, serving ranchers and wheat farmers.<ref name="EOHC-Morrison" />

Morrison's economy was enhanced when oil prospectors discovered large natural gas fields in [[Pawnee County, Oklahoma|Pawnee County]], east of Morrison, between 1915 and 1919. These were the largest fields discovered in Oklahoma up until that time. Pipelines collected the gas and moved it to [[Oklahoma City]]. Oil was discovered north of Morrison in 1923. These discoveries protected the town from the post-[[World War I]] agricultural depression that affected many other Oklahoma farm towns.<ref name="EOHC-Morrison" />