Cleveland, Oklahoma's Pioneer Oil City

Cleveland's boom needed beds, and its pioneer doctor found them at a world's fair. George W. Sutton had attended the 1904 St. Louis exposition, and knowing the town lacked a first-class hotel, he bought the fair's Inside Inn; parts of it were salvaged and shipped down on the Katy, whose line had reached Cleveland that February, to become the Arlington Hotel. The town also traded on its address: before statehood it was known as a whiskey town on the line between wet Oklahoma Territory and dry Indian Territory, until 1907 made the whole state dry.

What the plaque says

Cleveland Oklahoma's Pioneer Oil City July 2, 1904, the Lowery No. 1 came in just S. of Cleveland opening the Cleveland sand and creating Oklahoma's first oil boom town. Here also was Jordan's Fort built in 1886 by Col. J.W. Jordan, Cherokee agent and deputy U.S. marshal, to keep Boomers out of Cherokee Outlet. Oklahoma Historical Society 161-1995

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Pawnee Nation Museum — 18 mi
  The Pawnee Nation's own museum in Pawnee, keeping the Nation's objects and the record of a military tradition it traces from the Pawnee Scouts of 1864 to the code talkers of World War II.

More markers nearby

• Battle of Round Mountain — 16 mi
• World Famous Athlete Jim Thorpe — 17 mi
• Pawnee Agency — 19 mi
• Turkey Track Ranch — 24 mi