Editing Waynoka, Oklahoma (section)

==History==

===Founding years===
Founded in what was then known as [[Indian Territory]], Waynoka was established in 1887 when the Southern Kansas Railroad, a subsidiary of the [[Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway]], built a rail line through the area.  Shortly thereafter, on April 10, 1888, a post office was established, having the distinction of being the first to be established in the [[Cherokee Outlet]].  Its economy was based on the railroad and the large ranches in the area.  When the Cherokee Outlet opened up for non-Indian settlement in the land run of September 16, 1893, Waynoka became the area's agricultural trade center.<ref name="EOHC-Waynoka">{{cite web|last1=Barker Olson|first1=Sandra|url=http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=WA051|title=Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Waynoka|website=Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture|publisher=Oklahoma Historical Society|access-date=October 7, 2018}}</ref>

===Transportation Center===
The Santa Fe Railway made the city a major railroad center when it built Oklahoma's largest rail yard in Waynoka.  Ultimately employing a thousand machinists, boilermakers, sheet metal mechanics, fire builders, car men, switchmen, and engineers, it operated twenty-four hours a day.  One of the nation's largest ice plants was built to supply ice for refrigerator cars hauling perishables on Santa Fe's main line from [[Chicago]] to [[Los Angeles]].  In addition, a roundhouse, maintenance and repair shops, a reading room, a depot, and a [[Harvey House]] were built by the railroad.  Although the railroad eventually moved its maintenance operations from Waynoka, it continued train crew changes there until 1986.  At the turn of the twenty-first century, between fifty and one hundred trains still passed daily through Waynoka on Oklahoma's fastest and busiest rail line.<ref name="EOHC-Waynoka"/>

Waynoka was also the starting point of the [[Buffalo and Northwestern Railroad]], a 52-mile line linking to [[Buffalo, Oklahoma]], the [[Harper County, Oklahoma|Harper County]] seat.<ref name=Abandoned/><ref name=Buffalo>{{cite web|url= https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=BU004 |title=Buffalo|publisher=Maxine Bamburg, Oklahoma Historical Society|accessdate=November 15, 2021}}</ref>  The line was finished in 1920, and acquired by the Santa Fe the same year.<ref name=Buffalo/>  However, the Santa Fe  abandoned the line in 1982.<ref name=Abandoned>{{cite web|url= http://www.abandonedrails.com/buffalo-district |title=The Buffalo District|publisher=AbandonedRails.com|accessdate=November 15, 2021}}</ref>

The predecessor company of [[TWA]], [[Transcontinental Air Transport]], known as "TAT", built Oklahoma's first transcontinental airport in 1929 in Waynoka, at a site five miles northeast of town selected by [[Charles Lindbergh]] himself.  TAT offered passengers coast-to-coast travel in forty-eight hours,<ref name="EOHC-Waynoka"/> and Waynoka was an important stop on the pioneering route.  For the service, TAT utilized not only its own [[Ford Trimotor]] aircraft, but also [[Pullman (car or coach)|Pullman]] sleeper cars of the [[Pennsylvania Railroad]] and the [[Santa Fe Railroad]] for the two overnight segments of the long trip.  It was at Waynoka that passengers would transfer from the TAT airplane to the Santa Fe train (going westbound), or conversely, from the Santa Fe train to the TAT plane (heading eastbound).<ref name="EOHC-TAT">{{cite web|last1=Bennett-Jones|first1=Julie A.|url=http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=TR005|title=Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - TRANSCONTINENTAL AIR TRANSPORT|website=Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture|publisher=Oklahoma Historical Society|access-date=October 19, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/tat.htm| title= TAT Timetable, July 7, 1929| publisher=www.timetableimages.com | access-date=January 29, 2019}}</ref>  Both Lindbergh and [[Amelia Earhart]], as officers in the company, reportedly became familiar faces in town.<ref name="EOHC-Waynoka"/>  After losing $2.7 million in its first eighteen months of operation, TAT in October 1930 merged with Western Air Express to become Transcontinental and Western Airlines, which announced a new route from Kansas City, Kansas, by way of Tulsa, Oklahoma. This ended operations at Waynoka.<ref>{{cite web | url= https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=TR005| title= Transcontinental Air Transport| publisher=Oklahoma Historical Society | access-date=January 29, 2019}}</ref>

Waynoka is linked by [[US Route 281]].<ref name=Maps1>{{cite web|url=https://www.google.com/maps/place/Waynoka,+OK+73860/@36.5597239,-98.9076426,12.26z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x87af3f076b5037a7:0xd6a35e95c55d9f46!8m2!3d36.5822557!4d-98.8798145 |title=Waynoka, OK|publisher=Google Maps|access-date=January 7, 2021}}</ref>

The current Waynoka Municipal Airport (FAA Identifier: 1K5) is one mile southeast of town, and features a paved 3532’ x 60’ runway.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.airnav.com/airport/1K5 |title= Vici Municipal Airport |publisher=AirNav.com|access-date=January 7, 2021}}</ref>