Ingalls and Yale, Oklahoma

This past weekend was not supposed to include any ghost towns. i was sick last week and didn't feel like doing much of anything. But as our wanderings were planning to take us to Stillwater, we decided to visit a ghost town about 10 miles east called Ingalls.

Ingalls, Oklahoma was the site of an important outlaw shootout in the 1870s. The Doolin-Dalton gang had been prowling around the area and set up a home base in Ingalls, where the outlaws would come to town to gamble, drink, and make merry. The town actually didn't mind, as the outlaws brought a lot of money into the growing 'metropolis.'

The US Marshals on the other hand... after sending in a couple of scouts from Stillwater who verified that the gang was, in fact, at the town, US Marshals from Guthrie came to Ingalls and ambushed the outlaws. A gunfight ensued, and three Marshals died. A stone monument was erected in their honor.

Since then, though, the town has declined markedly. When we arrived and drove down Ash Street, there was nothing, other than the monument, except trailers, rusted out 1950s pickup trucks, and old sheets hanging out to dry in the prairie wind -- your basic Oklahoma hick gathering. But on our way out on E 19th Street, Jeff spotted a group of old buildings that hint of the town's original liveliness.

The sign between the upper story windows of this building read "The Ingalls Hotel."


The rest of the complex included a livery stable and a saloon (visible in this photograph), and to the east of the hotel, an old general store. We peered in the windows and saw a mess of confusing artifacts. In the general store there was an old scale from the turn of the century, and cast iron cookware easily from the 19th century, but also an antique jar filled with individually wrapped peppermints. In the saloon, boots covered with a century's worth of dust in one corner and in the other a Styrofoam cooler from a local QuickTrip convenience store. Eh?

We were on our way back out to OK51 to turn left toward Stillwater when Jeff suggested we go right and see Yale, Oklahoma.

Yale was still populated, and had a library, police station, and modern high school building. But the downtown area, and much of the rest of the town, was more like a ghost town than any other site i've yet visited.


The central business district was deserted except for a group of feral cats living out of an old storefront. The businesses were filled with old junk from the first half of the 20th century, and the signs above the abandoned buildings were all squeaking along with the breeze. It was the only sound in town.