Canute

Before Canute there was Keen, a general store four miles off kept by Robert Keen, which moved to Oak and then, in 1899, to this town's site. The Catholic parish came early too: St. Francis of Assisi, founded in 1898 three miles southeast and dedicated by Theophile Meerschaert in 1901, became western Oklahoma's mother parish, serving ten towns in five counties. Holy Family Church followed in Canute in 1926, and its cemetery lies behind this stone. In 1970 St. Francis, Holy Family and St. Joseph's of Elk City merged as St. Matthew in Elk City.

What the plaque says

Canute Early inhabitants of the area were Plains Indians who followed and hunted the roam- ing herds of buffalo that grazed the rich grasslands of this area. Evidence of several Indian encampments have been located on Trail Elk, Turkey and Oak Creeks as well as Indian Springs. In 1541, Spanish explorer Coronado crossed western Oklahoma in search of fabled cities of gold. For the next 350 years Spaniards, Mexicans and Americans searched for gold in the Canute area. Somewhere along Turkey Creek may have once thrived the fabled Mexican gold-mining town of "Cascorillo." The wealth they sought in vain was found by later residents in the form of wheat, cattle, oil and natural gas. Texas cattle moved through the area after the Civil War to the railhead and markets in Kansas. The Great Western Trail crossed present day I-40 approximately one and one half miles east of present day Canute. Farmers and ranchers arrived in the Land Run of 1892 with the opening of the Cheyenne- Arapaho Territory. The final location of Canute was settled in 1902 by lottery. The winners paid $10.00 for a lot. The Canute Bank is the oldest state chartered bank still in operation. Another major source of the area's prosper- ity was the discovery of oil in the early 1900's and later natural gas. The first well drilled in western Oklahoma was on the C.H. Wilcox farm one mile northeast of Canute in 1917. The deepest well in the world at the time was drilled to 31,441 feet and was located approx- imately 10 miles southeast of Canute. Oklahoma Historical Society Oklahoma Department of Transportation 218-1994

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Elk City Museum Complex — 9.3 mi
  Elk City's museums on old 66: the National Route 66 and Transportation Museum's drive through all eight states, a pioneer Old Town, a farm and ranch hall and a blacksmith shop.
• Oklahoma Route 66 Museum — 17 mi
  The Oklahoma Historical Society's museum of the road in Clinton, decade by decade from the 1926 designation through the Dust Bowl and the war to the 1950s diner.
• Beckham County Courthouse — 22 mi
  Sayre's domed 1911 courthouse, built to impress people stepping off the train and filmed by John Ford for The Grapes of Wrath once Route 66 came through the square.
• Washita Battlefield National Historic Site — 27 mi
  The bend of the Washita where the 7th Cavalry attacked Black Kettle's Cheyenne village at dawn on November 27, 1868, kept by the Park Service with a trail to the village site.

More markers nearby

• Sandstone Creek Area — 22 mi
• Battle of the Washita — 26 mi