LASR.net Homepage

Menu


Boise City, Oklahoma

Boise City, Oklahoma

Boise City is the only town in the continental United States that has been bombed. An Air Force B-17 crew mistook the lights around the courthouse square for the bombing range thirty miles to the southeast.

No one knows how Boise (rhymes with "voice") City got its name. Before statehood there was a Boice Cattle Company near here (with a difference in spelling), and at one time there was a civil war hero, a Captain Boise (spelling uncertain) known in this area. Perhaps the town was named for one or the other. Or maybe for Boise, Idaho, with a change of pronunciation.

Evidence of the historic Santa Fe Trail can be seen at several spots nearby. During the Santa Fe Trail Daze held each year during the first weekend in June, Boise City becomes the site of the World Champion Post Hole Digging Contest.

Boise City became the county seat of Cimarron County, Oklahoma in 1908, in an election held just after statehood the previous year. The town grew slowly until 1925 when the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway was established. Soon grain elevators were built along with substantial businesses and residences. In 1930, the Santa Fe Railway built it's second rail line through Boise City. In 1927 enough oil was discovered a few miles north of town to create excitement but it wasn't until 1950 that commercial oil and gas production began.

Attractions and Upcoming Events

Santa Fe Trail

The Santa Fe Trail is thought to be the oldest and longest commercial highway across the Great Plains, from Franklin on the Missouri River east of present Kansas City nearly 800 miles southwest to Santa Fe of today's New Mexico. A direct path across the plains (the Cimarron Route or Cut-off)

Boise City, OK Pioneer History

Black Mesa

Lava from an extinct volcano created the rugged setting of the Black Mesa which is the highest point in Oklahoma, just short of 5,000 feet above sea level. Here in the western end of Cimarron County, history is revealed with a lid some 50 to 60 feet thick, about 50

Boise City, OK Natural Attractions

Jack Hoxie, Silver Screen Cowboy

At the turn of the century, silent silver screen stars like Jack Hoxie, brought thrilling adventures of the Old West to theaters across America. It all started with the filming of "The Great Train Robbery" in 1903 and from there western films were high in demand. 10

Boise City, OK Famous People

Autograph Rock

Autograph Rock contains hundreds of carved signatures of Santa Fe travelers and others dating as early as 1826. Autograph Rock is a 200 yard long rock cliff about 20-25 feet high. There are over 323 names on the rock itself and 500

Boise City, OK Natural Attractions

Boise City Bombed

JULY 5, 1943 12:30 A.M. Boise City, Oklahoma was the only city in the United States to be bombed during World War II. On Monday night, July 5, 1943, at approximately 12:30 a.m., a B-17 Bomber based at Dalhart Army Air Base (50 miles to the south of Boise City)

Boise City, OK Historical Markers

Things to do near Boise City, OK

Whirlwind Cemetery and David Pendleton (O-KUH-HA-T

In 1981, a stone was laid to mark the grave of the Reverend David Oakerhater Pendleton in a small cemetery west of the presen...

Chief Left Hand Monument

Born in the 1840s somewhere west of present Fort Supply, Left Hand ("Niwat," also "Nawathit") became principal chief of the s...

The Evans Buildings

These two buildings were built by J.E. Evans of whom not much is now known. The building on the east was the first brick buil...

Sunset Hills Golf Course

Okeene Mill