Norge, Oklahoma

The name on the water tower is the Norwegian word for Norway, and that tells you everything about who settled this high plain southwest of Chickasha. In the early nineteen hundreds, a wave of Norwegian immigrants planted themselves in western Grady County, drawn by cheap land on what had been the Chickasaw Nation and, just to the west, the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache Reserve. They named their community Norge in honor of the homeland they had left behind.

The town grew around a small cluster of farm businesses and churches. The Depression and the Dust Bowl hit hard, and the population stayed small. Today fewer than two hundred people call it home, and the Norwegian surnames of its founders still appear on mailboxes throughout the surrounding farmland.