Editing Okarche, Oklahoma (section)

==History==
Okarche is located on land that, before 1830, was within the historic area of the [[Wichita people]]. The location was in territory assigned to the [[Muscogee|Creek]] and [[Seminole]] people when removal of tribes from the [[southeastern United States]] began in 1830. After the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], parts of [[Indian Territory]] were designated for resettlement of [[Plains Indians]]. The site of the future town of Okarche was just inside the eastern border of the [[Cheyenne]] and [[Arapaho]] reservation.<ref>{{cite book| last=Baird| first=W. David and Goble, Danney| title=Oklahoma: A History| year=2008| publisher=University of Oklahoma Press| location=Norman}}</ref>

From 1867 to 1884, cattle were driven through the area on the [[Chisholm Trail]] from [[Texas]] to railheads in [[Kansas]]. Later the [[Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad]] and the state road which would become the [[Meridian Highway]] and [[U.S. Route 81 in Oklahoma|U.S. Highway 81]] would follow roughly the same route through Oklahoma Territory.

[[File:OkarcheOkDowGrainElevator.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Dow Grain Company Elevator in Okarche]]
On March 2, 1887, the U.S. Congress approved construction of a railroad through Indian Territory. The [[Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska Railway]] was given a {{convert|100|ft|adj=on}} right of way through the territory and authorized to take additional right of way for stations every {{convert|10|mi}} of track.<ref>{{cite web| title=An act to grant the right of way through the Indian Territory to the Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska Railway, and for other purposes| url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol1/HTML_files/SES0250.html#sec2a| work=Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties: Vol. I, Laws (compiled to December 1, 1902)| publisher=Oklahoma State University Digital Library| access-date=June 4, 2011}}</ref> Railway assets would be turned over to the CRI&P in June 1890. Construction proceeded southward from [[Caldwell, Kansas]], and was completed to [[Pond Creek, Oklahoma|Pond Creek]] by April 1889 and to [[El Reno, Oklahoma|El Reno]] in January 1890. The railway depot where Okarche was platted was completed at that time.

The Okarche post office was established June 28, 1890. Cheyenne and Arapaho lands were opened to settlement by [[land run]] on April 19, 1892. The town was incorporated in 1905 – two years before statehood. The name of the town is a portmanteau, derived from parts of three words, Oklahoma (OK), [[Arapaho]] (AR), and [[Cheyenne]] (CHE). The Southern Arapaho and Cheyenne [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] tribes had been relocated to Oklahoma from the northern [[Great Plains]] in the late 19th century.<ref name="EOHC-Okarche">Cynthia Savage, [http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=OK001 "Okarche," ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture''], 2009. Accessed April 3, 2015.</ref> The town's population hovered in the 400s for more than three decades after statehood had risen to over 1,200 by 2010.

By the late 1890s, [[German American|German immigrants]] were a greater part of the population and [[German language|German]] a widely used language of the community.<ref>{{cite journal| last=Willibrand| first=William Anthony| title=German in Okarche 1892-1902| journal=Chronicles of Oklahoma| date=Autumn 1950| volume=028| pages=284+| url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v028/v028p284.pdf}}</ref> Many had come to America in the wave of 1.5 million German immigrants to the United States in the 1880s and lived in states to the north such as [[Iowa]], [[Nebraska]], or [[Missouri]] before coming to Oklahoma Territory.<ref name="Rohrs 1980">{{cite book| last=Rohrs| first=Richard C.| title=The Germans in Oklahoma| year=1980| publisher=University of Oklahoma Press| location=Norman}}</ref> [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] and [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] churches with schools were established as immigrants sought to keep faith and customs from the old country alive in their new home. St. John's Lutheran Church was founded in 1892 and Holy Trinity Catholic Church in 1893. Worship and education was conducted principally in German until [[American entry into World War I]] in 1917. Bilingual worship would continue for about two decades.<ref name="Rohrs 1980"/>

When federal highway numbering was implemented in November 1926, the [[Meridian Highway]] through Okarche was designated [[U.S. Route 81|US-81]] and fully paved in the Okarche area by 1931. The Northwest Highway ([[Oklahoma State Highway 3|OK-3]]) was opened as a gravel-surfaced road in 1939 and fully paved by 1947.<ref>{{cite web| title=Oklahoma Department of Transportation| url=http://www.okladot.state.ok.us/maps/state/archive-a.htm| work=State Map Archive| access-date=June 5, 2011}}</ref> Okarche now has four-lane divided highway access to neighboring communities, including the Oklahoma City metro area. The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad entered its final bankruptcy in 1975. The [[Union Pacific Railroad]] now operates on the former Rock Island route.