Enid-Pond Creek Railroad War

Enid–Pond Creek Railroad War

Map of "L" and "O" counties in 1894.
Date	1893–1894
Location	Oklahoma, United States

The Enid–Pond Creek Railroad War occurred in Oklahoma Territory between 1893 and 1894, and pitted the citizens of two United States designated county seats against the Rock Island Railroad.

In the late 1880s, the Rock Island Railroad built a rail line into Indian Territory, entering near Caldwell, Kansas, and following the Chisholm Trail. Along the infrastructure, the company established railroad stations near a couple of the existing stage stations along the trail. The original stations, Round Pond, built at Pond Stage Stand on Round Pond Creek, and Skeleton Station (later known as Enid station), located in North Enid, Oklahoma near the Skeleton Ranch headquarters, would become involved in a controversy between the railroad, the new county seats, and the Department of the Interior.

The troubles began when the United States Department of the Interior set about opening the Cherokee Strip (or Cherokee Outlet) to settlement. Hoping to lessen the problem of county seat wars—a common event in newly settled areas of the American Old West—the Department divided the strip into counties and assigned them county seats. They picked Pond Creek in "L" County and Enid in "O" County. Following the Interior Department's announcement of the official county seats, several citizens of the Cherokee Nation exercised their options to select their land allotments in the Outlet, and chose them at the two designated town sites. Railroad officials were accused of conspiring with the Indians to speculate on town development, so officials in the Interior Department moved the government approved towns to different but nearby locations.