Birthplace of Jim Thorpe

Thorpe's family joined two nations. His father, Hiram Thorpe, was the son of an Irish father and a Sac and Fox mother, and his mother, Charlotte Vieux, was Citizen Potawatomi, a descendant of Chief Louis Vieux; both parents were Roman Catholic. Jim was a twin, and his brother Charlie helped him through school until Charlie died of pneumonia at about nine. Jim ran away from the Sac and Fox Agency School near Stroud several times, so his father sent him to Haskell in Kansas, and after his mother's death he entered Carlisle in 1904, at 16.

What the plaque says

Birthplace of Jim Thorpe James Francis Thorpe, Sac and Fox Indian name of Wa-Tho-Huck "Bright Path." Born May 22, 1887, south of present-day Prague. Attended Haskell Indian School, Kansas and Carlisle Institute, Pennsylvania where he excelled in football and track. At 1912 Olympics, Thorpe won both decathlon and pentathlon events. Played Major League baseball 1913-1919 and profes- sional football 1915-1929. First president of the National Foot- ball League and inducted into Professional Football Hall of Fame. Voted world's greatest male athlete in the first half of 20th century by Associated Press. D. 1953 Oklahoma Historical Society 225-1995

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Boley Historic District — 11 mi
  The downtown of the largest of Oklahoma's All-Black towns, praised by Booker T. Washington, squeezed by Jim Crow and white land oaths, bankrupt in 1939 and still living today.
• Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center — 19 mi
  The Citizen Potawatomi Nation's national museum and archive in Shawnee, telling a Great Lakes people's road through Kansas to Indian Territory in the Nation's own words and objects.
• Seminole Nation Museum — 26 mi
  A community museum in Wewoka, capital of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, telling the Seminole story from Florida to Indian Territory and the town that John Horse's people founded in 1849.

More markers nearby

• Birthsite of Jim Thorpe — 5.9 mi
• Boley, Oklahoma — 11 mi
• Boley — 11 mi
• Home on the Range — 16 mi