Frederick, Oklahoma | |
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City | |
Grand Hotel in 2012
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Location of Frederick within Oklahoma |
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Coordinates: 34°23′25″N 99°0′58″W / 34.39028°N 99.01611°WCoordinates: 34°23′25″N 99°0′58″W / 34.39028°N 99.01611°W | |
Country | United States |
State | Oklahoma |
County | Tillman |
Government | |
• Type | Council-Manager |
Area | |
• Total | 4.934957 sq mi (12.781479 km2) |
• Land | 4.924858 sq mi (12.755324 km2) |
• Water | 0.010099 sq mi (0.026155 km2) |
Elevation | 1,306 ft (398 m) |
Population (2010) | |
• Total | 3,940 |
• Density | 800/sq mi (310/km2) |
Time zone | CST (UTC-6) |
• Summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
ZIP code | 73542 |
Area code | 580 |
FIPS code | 40-27800 |
GNIS feature ID | 1093029 |
Frederick is a city and county seat of Tillman County, Oklahoma, United States. Once titled "The Friendly City", its charm and receptiveness leaves visitors feeling like locals. The population was 3,940 at the 2010 census. It is an agriculture-based community that primarily produces wheat, cotton, and cattle. Frederick is home to three dairies, a 1400-acre industrial park, and Frederick Regional Airport, which includes restored World War II hangars which house the World War II Airborne Demonstration Team.
Frederick was visited in April 1905 by then U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt while he was on a wolf hunt.
Originally established in 1901, the Frederick area was among the last of the Oklahoma Territory land to be opened to settlement. What is now Frederick used to be two towns: Gosnell and Hazel. Both towns were established in 1901, when the Kiowa-Comanche-Apache reservation was opened to settlement. In 1902 the towns combined in order to take advantage of the Blackwell, Enid and Southern Railroad. The new town was named Frederick, after the son of a railroad executive. Gosnell received the depot, and the residents of Hazel moved north to the new town of Frederick.The post office moved from Gosnell to Frederick, for which it was renamed in 1902.
Most of the business district was destroyed by fires in 1904 and 1905. The buildings had been made of wood, and were quickly replaced with brick.
In the spring of 1905, President Teddy Roosevelt visited Frederick to meet with Jack "Catch-'em-alive" Abernathy, the famed barehanded wolf hunter, and introduced the area to tourism and its recreational value. In 1907 the City of Frederick was incorporated, Oklahoma became a state, Frederick was named the seat of Tillman County, and the Katy Railroad came to Frederick. By 1915, Frederick had 15 miles of sidewalks and crossings, and 75 miles of wide, graded, rolled streets. The first paved streets were laid in 1918.
Frederick was a major stop on the Wichita Falls and Northwestern Railway, one of the Frank Kell and Joseph A. Kemp properties which operated from 1906 to 1923 from Wichita Falls to Forgan in the Oklahoma Panhandle. The line was sold to the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad ("Katy"). The link to Frederick was abandoned in 1973, when Altus, Oklahoma became the northern terminus of the successor railroad.