Editing Wagoner, Oklahoma (section)

==History==
{{US Census population
|1900= 2372
|1910= 4018
|1920= 3436
|1930= 2994
|1940= 3535
|1950= 4395
|1960= 4469
|1970= 4959
|1980= 6191
|1990= 6894
|2000= 7669
|2010= 8323
|2020= 7621
|footnote=<ref name = "EOHC-Wagoner"/>
}}

Wagoner is along the path of the [[Texas Road]] cattle trail,<ref>{{cite web |url = https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=TE023 | title= Texas Road | publisher=[[Oklahoma Historical Society]] | access-date=January 23, 2019}}</ref> and the later [[Jefferson Highway]]<ref>{{cite web |url = https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1kDNFO6G72Zs6uYHw8OoQTF-x5ALIx4xe&ll=36.272239108052105%2C-95.15108052080575&z=11 | title= Jefferson Highway Map | publisher=2lanetraveler.com | access-date=January 23, 2019}}</ref> of the early [[National Trail System]], both roughly along the route of [[U.S. Route 69 in Oklahoma|U.S. Route 69 through Oklahoma]] today. The town began as a small community at the intersection of the [[Missouri-Kansas-Texas]] (MKT) Railway and the [[Kansas and Arkansas Valley Railway]] (later the [[Missouri Pacific Railway]]), when William McAnally, a foreman for the MKT built a small hotel at this isolated location in June 1887. By the next summer others had built two more hotels and two general stores. The town was named for railroad dispatcher Henry "Big Foot" Wagoner, who had reported the need for a railroad switch nearby to accommodate the shipment of logs and hay. The switch had been previously named "Wagoner's Switch." The switch soon relocated to the town and caused the development of a major cattle shipping business.<ref name = "EOHC-Wagoner"/>

By 1894, the community had 642 names in a local census. A local newspaper began promoting the town in 1895, encouraging more people to move to there. By 1896, there were approximately 1,500 residents. In the fall of 1895, the community formed a commission that circulated a petition requesting incorporation under the statutes of Arkansas. Incorporation was granted by the U. S. District Court on January 4, 1896, making Wagoner the first city incorporated in Indian Territory.<ref name = "EOHC-Wagoner"/>

A privately funded courthouse was built in 1897, which housed a newly created U. S. Western District Court. The [[Dawes Commission]] turned Indian Territory land from tribal to individual ownership by members of each tribe. The individuals were allowed to sell their land to non-Indians, causing a real estate boom in farmland around the area. By statehood, the city had 2,950 residents and was named as the county seat of Wagoner County.<ref name = "EOHC-Wagoner"/>

In April 1914 Wagoner was the location of a brutal lynching of a 17 year old African American girl.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ginzburg |first1=Ralph |title=100 Years of Lynchings |url=https://archive.org/details/100yearsoflynchi00ralp |url-access=registration |date=1988 |publisher=Black Classic Press |location=Baltimore, MD |isbn= 978-0-933121-18-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/100yearsoflynchi00ralp/page/90 90]}}</ref>

The boom continued through 1910, when the population reached 4,018. The MKT had located a division headquarters in the city, which then had three railroad trunk lines and twenty passenger trains a day. Industries included three grain elevators, a cotton gin, cotton oil mill, iron foundry, hardwood company, cement plant, and roller mill. However, the boom ended in 1913, when the MKT moved its division headquarters to Muskogee. The oil boom farther west and later, the Great Depression, caused a further decline in the city's economy and population.<ref name = "EOHC-Wagoner"/>

World War II started a revival of Wagoner's fortunes. The city lay between two war-related Federal Government projects: [[Camp Gruber]] to the south and the [[Oklahoma Ordnance Works]] to the north.<ref name = "EOHC-Wagoner"/>

After the war, several small manufacturing industries took root. Completion of the nearby [[Fort Gibson Lake]] in 1950 stimulated the economy and turned Wagoner into a sports and retirement center. The McLellan-Kerr navigational channel made the agricultural area accessible by barges, stimulating farm-related businesses. Highway improvements created Wagoner as a suburban area for Tulsa and Muskogee.<ref name = "EOHC-Wagoner"/>

[[File:Wagoner, Oklahoma Carnegie Library 1912 2021090600009.jpg|thumb|Wagoner, Oklahoma Carnegie Library 1912 2021090600009]] [[File:Wagoner, Oklahoma National Guard Armory built in 1938, 2021090600012.jpg|thumb|Wagoner, Oklahoma National Guard Armory built in 1938, 2021090600012]] [[File:Wagoner, Oklahoma National Guard Armory built in 1938 2021090600013.jpg|thumb|Wagoner, Oklahoma National Guard Armory built in 1938,]] [[File:The Old Fire House in Wagoner, Oklahoma.jpg|thumb|The Old Fire House in Wagoner, Oklahoma in 2021]] [[File:The Old Bank in downtown Wagoner, Oklahoma.jpg|thumb|The Old Bank in downtown Wagoner, Oklahoma]] [[File:Old Theater in downtown Wagoner, Oklahoma.jpg|thumb|Old Theater in downtown Wagoner, Oklahoma now the History Center for Wagoner.]] [[File:Historic Building in Downtown Wagoner, Oklahoma.jpg|thumb|Historic Building in Downtown Wagoner, Oklahoma National Register of Historic Places]] [[File:Historic Buildings in Downtown Wagoner, Oklahoma on National Register of Historic Places.jpg|thumb|Historic Buildings in Downtown Wagoner, Oklahoma on National Register of Historic Places]] [[File:Historic Building in Downtown Wagoner, Oklahoma 2021090600004.jpg|thumb|Historic Building in Downtown Wagoner, Oklahoma 2021090600004]] [[File:Historic Train Station in Wagoner, Oklahoma 2021090600007.jpg|thumb|Historic Train Station in Wagoner, Oklahoma 2021090600007]]