Volume 13 , Issue 8

The Salt Fork River of Oklahoma Territory

These were the headlines in an Alva, Oklahoma newspaper, dated November 23, 1934, Salt Fork River Once Full of Fish and Canoes Glided Up and Down State Stream. T. E. Beck, Jefferson gives us an interesting history of the body of water near Alva. Old name comes from Indians, he says after study.

The news article was printed in The Alva Daily Record, Alva, Oklahoma, Friday, November 23, 1934, Vol. 32, No. 276. The article is as follows below:

Jefferson, Nov. 22 (1934) -- (Special) -- The fact is known to but few people today that the original name of Salt Fork river, in northern Oklahoma, was known as Nescatunga river, - says T. E. Beck of Jefferson, Grant County, longtime newspaper man in the Cherokee Strip and one of the Strip's enthusiastic and best known historians.

By consulting an old atlas, which shows the great American desert, the stream between the Arkansas river and the Cimarron river as the Nescatunga. It is an Indian name but just what it signifies is only conjecture. From an Indian legend, handed down to the tribes that formerly occupied this part of the country, information is gained as to many of the characteristics of the stream. It describes what took place many, many years ago. The Indians believed that the Great Spirit, Manitou, became angered and sent a big sand wind and filled the river with sand and made the water unfit for drinking. So much for the legend.

Called It Deep Gulch

Indians of later years stated that the stream was in a deep gulch, 40 or more feet deep, and that within the banks enormous trees were growing, and the channel was a flowing stream of clear deep water, on which the Indians traveled by canoes. At that time the river was a mile or more north of its present channel, and this has been proved by borings made in the sand to the north. The depth in most places is 50 feet to the rock and from this underground stream, a number of towns in Northern Oklahoma get their water supply. The Indians were right in regard to the depth of the original stream, and the water is clear, pure and inexhaustible.

The source of Salt Fork river is in Comanche County, Kansas, and is formed by several small creeks, known as the Nescatungas, fed by numerous springs coming from sands, known as sheetwater sands which underlay the entire western plains to the Rocky mountains, at a depth in some places of 200 feet, but the outcroppings occur along these creeks in Comanche County. The water to begin with in Salt Fork river is clear and pure.

Deep Holes in Places

A little way down Salt Fork is where it takes its brackish taste from the gyp water it receives from Cave creek, which heads in the gypsum hills in which there are many caves and water flowing from the caverns. One cave in particular, the stream of water is some six feet in width and six to eight inches deep and very gyppy. A few miles below on the bank of Salt Fork is the deep hole in gyp rock. It is some 20 feet across and weights have been let down over 100 feet without striking bottom.

Another particularity of Salt Fork river is that no creek of any considerable length flows into it from the southside, but from the north side there is Yellowstone, and Little Yellowstone, Greever, Driftwood, Boggy and Turkey creeks in Woods County, and other smaller tributary branches, there is Big and Little Mule creeks, Medicine River, Big Sandy creek, Little Sandy creek, Pond creek, Deer creek, and Chicaskia river. These streams all add to the flood waters of Salt Fork and empty into the Arkansas river southeast of Ponca City. The windings of the river gives it a length of over 200 miles.

Salt Plains On River

One of the most peculiar formations along the Salt Fork river is the big salt plains in the eastern part of Alfalfa county. These plains cover an area of six by nine miles, and during dry weather are covered by a coat of salt. After a rain on the plains the salt water flows into Salt Fork river, near the boundary of Grant and Alfalfa counties. The water in the river becomes so salty that all the fish that cannot make it into some side creek are killed. Along the banks of the river for miles below thousands of dead fish can be seen after the freshet from the plains. The state game law does not allow seining, therefore, much valuable food is lost and does no one any good. It is to be hoped that in the near future a dam will be constructed across the mouth of these plains forming a large lake over the plains as a refuge for water fowls.

One Island Homesteaded

A few miles above the plain is located one of the state fish hatcheries. Numerous springs are found a short distance from the river, making an ideal location for raising young fish with which to stock streams and ponds.

Near this place in the river are two islands of several acres in extent. A filing has been made lately on one of these as a homestead. In other words, Uncle Sam has bet the tract of land against $14 that the homesteader can't live on the land five years.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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