Afton, Oklahoma: The Buffalo Ranch Town

The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad punched tracks through Cherokee Nation territory in eighteen seventy-one, and a Scottish surveyor named Anton Aires placed a station here and called it Afton, after his daughter back home. Route Sixty-Six arrived in nineteen twenty-six, and for the next three decades Afton thrived on Mother Road traffic. Its most beloved attraction opened in nineteen fifty-three when Russell and Aleene Kay started the Buffalo Ranch, a roadside stop with bison, llamas, yaks, and a petting zoo that drew families from across the country.

Interstate Forty-Four bypassed Afton in nineteen fifty-seven, and the town's population, which had held around twelve hundred, began a slow decline. Russell Kay died in nineteen sixty-three, but Aleene kept the ranch going until her own death in nineteen ninety-seven. Nothing of the original complex remains today, though the new owners occasionally keep a buffalo or two on the property in tribute.