Editing Wynnewood, Oklahoma (section)

== History ==
At the time of its founding, Wynnewood was located in [[Pickens County, Chickasaw Nation]].<ref>Charles Goins, ''Historical Atlas of Oklahoma'' (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2006), plate 105.</ref>
[[File:Eskridge Hotel.jpg|thumb|Eskridge Hotel (a museum since 1973), November 7, 2015]]

Wynnewood quickly became a market town for the surrounding area. In 1887, [[Presbyterian]] missionary Mary Semple Hotchkins moved her school for Chickasaw children from Cherokee Town{{efn|Cherokee Town was east of Pauls Valley, so named because some [[Cherokee]]s had taken refuge there during the Civil War.<ref name="EOHC-Bryce">[http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v007/v007p337.html Bryce, J. Y. "Some Historical Items of Interest: Cherokee Town." ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture''. p. 340. Vol. 7, No. 3. September, 1929.] Accessed August 27, 2016.</ref>}} to Wynnewood. In 1901, local citizens paid for building Indianola College.{{efn|When the Indianola College closed in 1909, Wynnewood took over the facility and turned it into a junior and senior high school that continued until 1927.<ref name="EOHC-Wynnewood"/>}} A promotional brochure published in 1907 called Wynnewood "the Queen City of the Famous Washita Valley." It could soon boast of having an opera house, electric lights, telephones, and the thirty-room Eskridge Hotel.<ref name="EOHC-Wynnewood"/>

The Eskridge Hotel continued in business until 1970, when it closed for good. In 1973, the Wynnewood Historical Society bought the three-story structure and converted it into a museum of local history. Hotel rooms have been decorated to depict life in Oklahoma during the late 19th century and early 20th century. In 1978, the former hotel was added to the [[National Register of Historic Places listings in Garvin County, Oklahoma]],<ref>[http://www.travelok.com/listings/view.profile/id.2650 "Eskridge Hotel Museum." TravelOK.] Accessed August 27, 2016.</ref> where it now resides along with Wynnewood’s Hargis-Mitchell-Cochran House and its Moore-Settle House. On May 9th 2016, an EF4 impacted the town.