Yukon: Czech Capital of Oklahoma

Town founder A. N. Spencer platted Yukon in eighteen ninety-one, naming it for the Yukon in Canada. What he built was a small railroad town west of Oklahoma City on the Chisholm Trail corridor. What happened next he probably did not anticipate.

Beginning around eighteen ninety-eight, Bohemian immigrants began arriving in Yukon in significant numbers. They organized fraternal lodges, built a Czech Hall, and established a community so cohesive that Yukon eventually claimed the title of Czech Capital of Oklahoma. When Austria-Hungary dissolved after World War One and Bohemia became Czechoslovakia, Yukon's Bohemians simply became Czechs without moving an inch. Their Czech Hall is recognized as a national and state historic site, and the Czech Festival fills the streets every year on the first Saturday of October.

Country music star Garth Brooks grew up in Yukon, though he was born in Tulsa. He is the town's most famous son, his name appearing on the water tower. The Czech heritage and the country music connection make Yukon a bit more layered than the standard western Oklahoma suburb it might otherwise appear to be. Milling shaped the town too. The Yukon Mill and Grain Company opened in eighteen ninety-three, and the high school students are still called the Millers. Paved roads arrived with State Highway Sixty-Six in nineteen twenty-six, and United States Route Sixty-Six still runs through town. Each June, on the first Saturday, a festival remembers the Chisholm Trail.