Editing Strong City, Oklahoma (section)

==History==
The town of Strong City was formally established June 25, 1912.<ref name="OHS">{{cite web | url= https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=ST052| title= Strong City | publisher= Dorothy Anderson, Oklahoma Historical Society | accessdate=February 13, 2020}}</ref>  It was named for Clint Strong, a railroad official and entrepreneur instrumental in the town's organization.<ref name ="OHS" />  While [[Cheyenne, Oklahoma]] was originally designated as the county seat for Roger Mills County, construction of the nearest railroad into the area, the [[Clinton and Oklahoma Western Railroad|Clinton and Oklahoma Western Railway]] (“C&OW”) terminated in August 1912 at Strong City.<ref name ="OHS" /><ref name="Railroads">{{cite book |title= Railroads of Oklahoma, June 6, 1870 to April 1, 1978|publisher= State of Oklahoma Department of Transportation, Survey Division | date=April 1, 1978|pages=17–19}}</ref>  More troubling to the people of Cheyenne was the fact that Strong City had been laid out with a rocky knoll in the center, reserved for the County Courthouse should Strong City become the county seat instead of Cheyenne.<ref name ="Railroads" />  Strong City also grew to become bigger than Cheyenne or any other town in the county, within a year of the railroad's arrival.<ref name ="OHS" />

To keep their town's position, the citizens of Cheyenne responded by building the Cheyenne Short Line Railroad up the Washita River valley to Strong City to connect to the C&OW.<ref name ="Railroads" />  In 1914 the courthouse in Cheyenne burned, and the fear again arose in Cheyenne that the citizens of Strong City would manage to have the new courthouse built there.<ref name ="Railroads" />  But Cheyenne came up with the funding, and a new two-story brick courthouse was constructed in that town.<ref name ="Railroads" />  Strong City nevertheless remained a competitor, and in 1932 managed to route a state highway ([[Oklahoma State Highway 33]])<ref name ="Map" /> through the town, passing well north of Cheyenne.<ref name ="Railroads" />  However, extension of the C&OW to Cheyenne and eventually into the Texas Panhandle caused trade to shift to the west of the town.<ref name="OHS"/>  The 1930s were not kind to the municipality: in 1934 and 1935 several business houses relocated from Strong City to Cheyenne, losing the town population and businesses while Cheyenne grew during the decade.<ref name ="Railroads" />  Today, Strong City is much smaller<ref name ="OHS" /> and Cheyenne remains the county seat.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ce.naco.org/?county_info=40129 | title=Roger Mills County, OK |publisher=National Association of Counties|accessdate=March 4, 2020}}</ref>