Lexington: Oldest Town in Oklahoma Territory

Lexington has a claim most Oklahoma towns cannot make: its site was surveyed and planned before the land run itself, ahead of towns that were only platted on the day of the run. Before the land run of April twenty-second, eighteen eighty-nine, a group of men from Lexington, Kentucky had already scouted a site on the north bank of the South Canadian River and coordinated their approach. On the day of the run they raced to file their claims together and staked out a townsite.

By eighteen ninety, two hundred twenty-three people lived here; by nineteen hundred that had grown to eight hundred sixty-one. In eighteen ninety-eight, Lexington had five saloons, seven general stores, eight doctors, a hotel, a broom factory, and three blacksmiths, all serving a fertile river-bottom community. The South Canadian River, which marks the boundary of old Cleveland County, made Lexington a natural crossing point and a gateway for settlers pushing deeper into the territory.