Editing Erick, Oklahoma

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2023}}
{{Infobox settlement
|official_name            = Erick, Oklahoma
|settlement_type          = [[City]]
|nickname                 = 
|motto                    =

<!-- Images -->
|image_skyline            = File:Corner of Sheb Wooley and Roger Miller streets of Erick, Oklahoma-4013372290.jpg
|imagesize                = 250 px
|image_caption            = Corner of Sheb Wooley and Roger Miller streets in Erick
|image_flag               = 
|image_seal               =

<!-- Maps -->
|image_map                = Beckham County Oklahoma incorporated and unincorporated areas Erick highlighted.svg
|mapsize                  = 260px
|map_caption              = Location in [[Beckham County, Oklahoma|Beckham County]] and the state of [[Oklahoma]]

<!-- Location -->
|subdivision_type         = [[List of sovereign states|Country]]
|subdivision_name         = United States
|subdivision_type1        = [[U.S. state|State]]
|subdivision_name1        = [[Oklahoma]]
|subdivision_type2        = [[List of counties in Oklahoma|County]]
|subdivision_name2        = [[Beckham County, Oklahoma|Beckham]]

<!-- Government -->
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|government_type          = 
|leader_title             = 
|leader_name              = 
|leader_title1            = 
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|established_title        = 
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|area_footnotes           = <ref name="TigerWebMapServer">{{cite web|title=ArcGIS REST Services Directory|url=https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/arcgis/rest/services/TIGERweb/Places_CouSub_ConCity_SubMCD/MapServer|publisher=United States Census Bureau|accessdate=September 20, 2022}}</ref>
|area_magnitude           = 
|area_total_km2           = 2.45
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|area_total_sq_mi         = 0.94
|area_land_sq_mi          = 0.94
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<!-- Population -->
|population_as_of         = [[2020 United States census|2020]]
|population_footnotes     = 
|population_total         = 1000
|population_density_km2   = 408.88
|population_density_sq_mi = 1059.32

<!-- General information -->
|timezone                 = [[North American Central Time Zone|Central (CST)]]
|utc_offset               = -6
|timezone_DST             = CDT
|utc_offset_DST           = -5
|elevation_footnotes      = <ref name=gnis/>
|elevation_ft             = 2064
|coordinates              = {{coord|35|12|55|N|99|52|07|W|region:US_type:city|display=inline,title}}<ref name=gnis/>
|postal_code_type         = [[ZIP code]]
|postal_code              = 73645
|area_code                = [[Area code 580|580]]
|blank_name               = [[Federal Information Processing Standard|FIPS code]]
|blank_info               = 40-24200<ref name="GR2">{{cite web |url=https://www.census.gov |publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]] |access-date=2008-01-31 |title=U.S. Census website }}</ref>
|blank1_name              = [[Geographic Names Information System|GNIS]] feature ID
|blank1_info               = 2410451<ref name=gnis>{{GNIS|2410451}}</ref>
|website                  = 
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}}
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'''Erick''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɪər|ɪ|k}} {{respell|EER|ik}}) is a city in [[Beckham County, Oklahoma|Beckham County]], [[Oklahoma]], United States. It is located {{convert|15|miles|km}} west of [[Sayre, Oklahoma|Sayre]], the county seat, and {{convert|6|miles|km}} east of the Oklahoma-[[Texas]] border. The population was an even 1,000 at the time of the [[2020 United States census|2020 census]].<ref>{{cite web|url=  https://www.census.gov/search-results.html?searchType=web&cssp=SERP&q=Erick%20city,%20Oklahoma|title=Erick (city), Oklahoma|publisher=United States Census Bureau|accessdate=August 29, 2023}}</ref>

A post office, originally named Dennis, was established to serve the local community on November 8, 1900. This community developed along the [[Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad]] line (later the [[Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway]]), built in 1902. On November 16, 1901, the name was changed to honor Beeks Erick, the townsite developer and president of the Choctaw Townsite and Improvement Company, and the town incorporated that year.<ref name="EOHC-Erick">{{cite book|last1=Wilson|first1=Linda D.|title=The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture |publisher=[[Oklahoma Historical Society]]|url=https://www.okhistory.org/publications/encyclopediaonline|section=Erick.|section-url=https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=ER001|access-date=2019-11-19}}</ref>

==History==
Erick was established in 1901 as an agricultural community on what would become the edge of the [[Dust Bowl]] during the [[Great Depression]] of the 1930s.<ref name="nps-westwinds">{{cite web|url=http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/route66/west_winds_motel_erick.html |title=West Winds Motel-Route 66: A Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary |publisher=US [[National Park Service]] |access-date=2012-12-27}}</ref> It was located on the [[National Old Trails Road]], one of the predecessors to the 1926 numbered [[US Highway]] system. Large segments of that road became part of [[U.S. Route 66]].<ref name="66encyc">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6--OtYFBZCIC&pg=PA99 |title=The Route 66 Encyclopedia |author=Jim Hinckley |page=99 |date= 2012-11-11|publisher=Voyageur Press |access-date=2012-12-27|isbn=9780760340417}}</ref>

At statehood in 1907, the population was reported as 686. In June 1908, Erick competed with Sayre for becoming the county seat, and only lost by a small margin in the election.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=SA027 |title=Sayre, Oklahoma|publisher=Oklahoma Historical Society|access-date =July 11, 2020}}</ref>  By 1909, Erick had become a busy community. In that year, it could boast of having 13 general stores, 2 hardware stores, multiple cotton gins and blacksmiths, a livery, a harness shop, a lumber store, five meat markets, several grocery stores, a bakery, and a confectionary, two banks and two weekly newspapers (the ''Beckham County Democrat'' and the ''Erick Altruist''. Baptists, Christian, Methodists and Presbyterians had organized churches. By the 1910 U.S. census, population had grown to 915, increasing to 971 in the 1920 census, and reaching a peak population of 2,231 in 1930 due to a brief oil boom. The city economy was bolstered by six cotton gins, a high-density cotton compress, and an ice plant. But in 1940 the census reported 1,591 residents.<ref name="EOHC-Erick"/>

The city prospered briefly in the era between WWI and WWII, when natural gas deposits were found in the area.<ref name="66encyc"/> On July 14, 1930, the ''Frederick (Maryland) Post'' published, "Reports received [[Shamrock, Texas|here]] by Sheriff W.K. McLemore, Wheeler County, said negroes were driven out of Erick Oklahoma last night and from [[Texola, Oklahoma]] today by a mob seeking reprisal for the death of Mrs. Harry Vaughn, wife of a farmer in a nearby county in Texas, who was beaten to death Friday by a Negro."<ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=RuTUBAAAQBAJ&q=Sheriff+W.K+McLemore%2C+Wheeler+County&pg=PA100 |title=The Illustrated Route 66 Historical Atlas, p.100|isbn=9780760345436|access-date=July 11, 2020|last1=Hinckley|first1=Jim|date=21 October 2014|publisher=Voyageur Press }}</ref>  In a separate incident in 1933, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow (better known as [[Bonnie and Clyde]]) kidnapped law enforcement officers from the [[Wellington, Texas]] area, drove them to a point near Erick, and left them tied to a tree with barbed wire cut from a fence. The officers freed themselves, but the trail of the criminals had gone cold.<ref>''The New York Times'', June 12, 1933, either page 1 or 4, depending on edition</ref><ref>''Great Plains'', by Ian Frazier, Penguin Books, 1989, p. 244</ref>

Steinbeck's [[The Grapes of Wrath|Grapes of Wrath]], published in 1939, was poorly received locally. According to Erick city clerk Nyla Tennery,  "I can remember plainly when the book came out my parents and other people who stayed here were just real upset. That book gave all Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma people a shiftless, bad name, like that was the only kind of people who were here."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/route6600susa |url-access=registration |title=Route 66: The Highway and Its People |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |author1=Quinta Scott |author2=Susan Croce Kelly |page=[https://archive.org/details/route6600susa/page/111 111] |date= 1990-08-01|access-date=2012-12-27|isbn=9780806122915}}</ref>

===U.S. Route 66===
Early [[motel|motor courts]] began to appear by 1940, with the DeLuxe Courts being the first local Route 66 lodging to appear in the ''AAA Directory of Motor Courts and Cottages''. While civilian motorcar travel was greatly curtailed due to wartime rationing, by 1946 guidebooks listed the Erick Court and trailer park, the Elms Garage, cafés and filling stations.

Erick prospered in the post-war heyday of Route 66, with various roadside businesses catering to motorists. Guidebooks promoted the tiny city as "the first town you encounter, going west, which has a true 'western' look with its wide, sun-baked streets, frequent horsemen, occasional sidewalk awnings and similar touches."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wfGPEX0PA3wC&pg=PA315 |title=Preserving Western History |page=315 |access-date=2012-12-27|isbn=9780826333100|last1=Gulliford|first1=Andrew|date=2005-08-01|publisher=UNM Press }}</ref>

The four lanes of Route 66 from [[Sayre, Oklahoma]] to Erick were the last Oklahoma section of US 66 to be bypassed by I-40, in 1975.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CKPB9V-QK_kC&pg=PA8 |title=Route 66 in Oklahoma |author1=Jon Sonderman |author2=Jim Ross |page=8 |date= 2011-12-05|publisher=Arcadia |access-date=2012-12-27|isbn=9780738590516}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fOOEXzXkZNMC&pg=PA67 |title=The Complete Route 66 Lost & Found |author=Russell A. Olsen |page=67 |date=2008-09-24 |publisher=Voyageur Press |access-date=2012-12-27|isbn=9780760334928}}</ref>

Many of the original Route 66 business are now gone or have been converted to other uses.

World War II navy veteran Cal Rogers opened Cal's Country Cooking on US 66 in May 1946, relocating to a new log cabin restaurant on an Interstate 40 exit in October 1979 after the Interstate bypassed traffic away from the old road.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3mPr1WEUw6gC&pg=PA230 |title=The Route 66 Cookbook: Comfort Food from the Mother Road; 1926-2001 |author1=Marian Clark |author2=Michael Wallis |page=230 |date= 2003-03-01|publisher=Council Oak Books |access-date=2012-12-27|isbn=9781571781284}}</ref> The family sold the business and antiques in a 1999 auction; the building is now a steak house.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://amarillo.com/stories/072099/new_eatery.shtml |title=Landmark eatery Cal's goes to auction block |newspaper= Amarillo Globe-News |date=1999-07-20 |access-date=2012-12-27}}</ref>

The West Winds Motel, originally built with individual carport garages and promoted in its heyday with neon signage of bucking broncos, still stands but is no longer open to visitors<ref name="nps-westwinds"/> despite attempts to restore the property.<ref>{{cite news|last=Juozapavicius |first=Justin |url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/travel/hotels/2007-05-19-route66_N.htm |title=Route 66 motels endangered |newspaper=[[USA Today]] |date=2007-05-21 |access-date=2012-12-27}}</ref>

Efforts to put "Historic Route 66" back onto maps as a tourist attraction date to the late 1980s, with the first [[Route 66 Association]] established three years after the last section of original highway (in [[Williams, Arizona]]) was bypassed by [[Interstate highway]] in 1984. Various local businesses and attractions cater to seasonal tourists attempting to find what remains of the old road.

The former City Meat Market building is now the Sandhills Curiosity Shop, one of the many Route 66 stops on [[Pixar]]'s research trips for 2006 animated film ''[[Cars (film)|Cars]]''. Its owners Harley and Annabelle Russell, who bill themselves as the "Mediocre Music Makers", served as model for the country hillbilly accent used by [[Larry the Cable Guy]]'s character [[Mater (Cars)|Mater]] in the film.<ref name="HarleyRussell">[http://blog.disneystore.com/blog/2012/04/get-your-kicks-on-route-66-and-some-cars-history.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120418131358/http://blog.disneystore.com/blog/2012/04/get-your-kicks-on-route-66-and-some-cars-history.html|date=April 18, 2012}} [http://edgeoftheroad.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/04/mediocre-music-makers-erick-ok.html]</ref>

The 3000 square foot [[Roger Miller Museum]] was a museum opened at the corner of US 66 (Roger Miller Boulevard) and Oklahoma 30 (Sheb Wooley Avenue) in 2004 <ref>{{cite news|author=Chet Flippo |url=http://www.cmt.com/news/nashville-skyline/1488141/nashville-skyline-roger-miller-gets-a-museum.jhtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607002301/http://www.cmt.com/news/nashville-skyline/1488141/nashville-skyline-roger-miller-gets-a-museum.jhtml |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 7, 2011 |title=Roger Miller Gets a Museum |publisher=CMT |date=2004-06-03 |access-date=2012-12-27}}</ref> in a former 1929 café <ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=_aVEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5397,1411986 |title=Western Oklahoma sees increase in tourism |agency=[[Associated Press]] |newspaper=Durant Daily Democrat |date=July 21, 2003 |page=12 |access-date=2012-12-27}}</ref> and drugstore building.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dg0EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA50 |title=National Parks |page=50 |access-date=2012-12-27|year=2004 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=laBZYAZxwJsC&pg=PA25 |title=Oklahoma 3 |author1=David Fitzgerald |author2=Jane Jayroe |page=25 |date=2006-09-15 |publisher=Graphic Arts Center Publishing Co. |access-date=2012-12-27|isbn=9781558689855}}</ref> It closed permanently on December 23, 2017. The space is now home to the 100th Meridian Museum.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DIhBsUfgIjoC&pg=PA73 |title=Ghost Towns of Route 66 |author1=Jim Hinckley |author2=Kerrick James |page=73 |date= 2011-06-06|publisher=Voyageur Press |access-date=2012-12-27|isbn=9780760338438}}</ref>

===Country musicians===
Erick was home to two of [[country music]]'s more idiosyncratic performers. [[Sheb Wooley]], the actor, songwriter, and singer who recorded the saga of the "one-eyed one-horned flying [[Purple People Eater|purple people eater]]" was born there in 1921. [[Roger Miller]], country superstar and author of "[[King of the Road (song)|King of the Road]]," "[[Dang Me]]," "[[You Can't Rollerskate in a Buffalo Herd]]," and many others, was born in [[Fort Worth, Texas]], but grew up in Erick from the age of three. When asked by an interviewer where Erick was near, Miller wryly replied, "It's close to extinction."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rogermiller.com/memorybook_erick.html|title=Roger Miller - Memory Book}}</ref> Herbert Mayfield, one of the Mayfield Brothers of [[West Texas]], was born in Erick but moved to [[Dimmitt, Texas|Dimmitt]], [[Texas]], when he was ten years of age.

==Geography==
According to the [[United States Census Bureau]], the city has a total area of {{convert|1.0|sqmi|km2}}, all land.

Erick is located just south of [[Interstate 40 in Oklahoma|I-40]] and is on the historic [[U.S. Route 66 in Oklahoma|US Route 66]] (which is signed as a business route from Interstate 40). The town is also served by [[State Highway 30 (Oklahoma)|State Highway 30]]. Erick is the second-closest Oklahoma settlement to the Texas border on US 66 or I-40 ([[Texola, Oklahoma|Texola]] is at the border, seven miles to the west).

It is still a railroad town, being an end point on the route of [[Farmrail Corporation|Farmrail]].<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.odot.org/maps/railroad/2016-2017/RRmap1_2016-17_web.pdf |title=Oklahoma 2018-2020 State Railroad Map|publisher=Oklahoma Department of Transportation|accessdate=October 21, 2021}}</ref>

==Climate==
<!--Infobox begins-->{{Weather box 
|location = Erick, Oklahoma
|single line = Y
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|Jan high F = 50.7
|Feb high F = 55.8
|Mar high F = 65.1
|Apr high F = 74.9
|May high F = 82.2
|Jun high F = 89.9
|Jul high F = 95.6
|Aug high F = 94.0
|Sep high F = 86.0
|Oct high F = 76.1
|Nov high F = 62.4
|Dec high F = 52.3
|year high F= 73.8
|Jan low F = 22.5
|Feb low F = 27.1
|Mar low F = 35.3
|Apr low F = 45.4
|May low F = 54.4
|Jun low F = 63.3
|Jul low F = 67.7
|Aug low F = 66.0
|Sep low F = 58.8
|Oct low F = 46.8
|Nov low F = 35.3
|Dec low F = 25.7
|year low F= 45.7
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|Mar precipitation inch = 1.7
|Apr precipitation inch = 2.0
|May precipitation inch = 4.1
|Jun precipitation inch = 3.7
|Jul precipitation inch = 1.7
|Aug precipitation inch = 2.5
|Sep precipitation inch = 3.2
|Oct precipitation inch = 2.2
|Nov precipitation inch = 1.3
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|source 1 = weather.com
|source 2 = Weatherbase <ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weatherall.php3?s=449243&refer= | title = Weatherbase: Historical Weather for Erick, Oklahoma, United States}}</ref>
|date=October 2, 2010
}}

==Demographics==
{{US Census population
|1910= 915
|1920= 971
|1930= 2231
|1940= 1591
|1950= 1579
|1960= 1342
|1970= 1285
|1980= 1375
|1990= 1083
|2000= 1023
|2010= 1052
|2020= 1000
|footnote=U.S. Decennial Census<ref name="DecennialCensus">{{cite web |url=https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census.html|title=Census of Population and Housing|publisher=Census.gov|access-date=June 4, 2015}}</ref>
}}

As of the [[census]]<ref name="GR2"/> of 2000, there were 1,023 people, 429 households, and 272 families residing in the city. The population density was {{convert|1,040.3|PD/sqmi|PD/km2|sp=us|adj=off}}. There were 556 housing units at an average density of {{convert|565.4|/mi2|/km2|disp=preunit|units&nbsp;|units|}}. The racial makeup of the city was 93.45% [[White (U.S. Census)|White]], 0.10% [[African American (U.S. Census)|African American]], 0.88% [[Native American (U.S. Census)|Native American]], 0.20% [[Asian (U.S. Census)|Asian]], 2.05% from [[Race (United States Census)|other races]], and 3.32% from two or more races. [[Hispanic (U.S. Census)|Hispanic]] or [[Latino (U.S. Census)|Latino]] of any race were 4.69% of the population.

There were 429 households, out of which 28.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.3% were [[Marriage|married couples]] living together, 10.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.4% were non-families. 34.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 19.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.34 and the average family size was 3.01.

In the city, the population was spread out, with 26.3% under the age of 18, 6.5% from 18 to 24, 22.3% from 25 to 44, 22.7% from 45 to 64, and 22.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females, there were 83.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 82.1 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $21,346, and the median income for a family was $28,977. Males had a median income of $23,482 versus $16,375 for females. The [[per capita income]] for the city was $13,855. About 22.5% of families and 25.7% of the population were below the [[poverty line]], including 39.4% of those under age 18 and 15.8% of those age 65 or over.

==Government==
Erick has an [[alderman]]ic form of government.<ref name="EOHC-Erick"/>

==Education==
It is in the [[Erick Public Schools]] school district.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www2.census.gov/geo/maps/DC2020/PL20/st40_ok/schooldistrict_maps/c40009_beckham/DC20SD_C40009.pdf|title=2020 CENSUS - SCHOOL DISTRICT REFERENCE MAP: Beckham County, OK|publisher=[[U.S. Census Bureau]]|access-date=2024-10-13}} - [https://www2.census.gov/geo/maps/DC2020/PL20/st40_ok/schooldistrict_maps/c40009_beckham/DC20SD_C40009_SD2MS.txt Text list]</ref>

==National Register of Historic Places==
* [[First National Bank (Erick, Oklahoma)|First National Bank]]
* [[West Winds Motel]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wikivoyage|Erick}}
* [http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=ER001 Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Erick]
{{Beckham County, Oklahoma}}
{{NRHP in Beckham County, Oklahoma}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Cities in Beckham County, Oklahoma]]
[[Category:Cities in Oklahoma]]
[[Category:Populated places established in 1900]]