North Fork Town, Oklahoma

Here is a ghost town that could be a dream location for someone who likes to hunt relics if the state of Oklahoma hadn‘t screwed it up.

North Fork Town, Oklahoma was located in McIntosh County about three miles east of Eufaula. The location of the town was once considered the cross roads of the Creek Nation. This location is close to where the Spanish expeditions crossed the Canadian Rivers during the 1600’s when they were searching for all of that gold and silver.

When the fur trade was thriving in the 1700’s the frog (French) trappers had trails along both the Canadian and North Canadian Rivers near North Fork Town. There was another trail called the Texas Trail that was used by the Osage Indians after the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory that also ran near the town. The Texas Trail was later used by cattlemen to move their herds northward.

North Fork Town sat right in the middle of all of this action. The town got it’s beginnings as a trading post in 1823 but the trading post died out after just three months. The town really started in earnest in 1830 when several stores and a blacksmith shop were established. Several log homes were built in the area of the town during the same time.

In 1839 a man by the name of Josiah Gregg, who was known for his involvement in the Santa Fe Trail, developed the Gregg Trail from Webbers Falls through North Fork town and on westward. There was another trail known as Marcy’s California Road that past near North Fork Town that was used during the late 1840s by people heading for the gold fields in California.

There was a large school built near the town in 1849 by a group of Methodists who named the school Asbury Mission. The school opened in 1850 with one hundred students. The school burned to the ground several years later.

North Fork Town got it’s own post office in 1853. The post office was given the name of Micco instead of North Fork Town.

And if all of that history isn’t enough to get you wanting to break out the detector, North Fork Town was used as a supply base by the Confederate Army during the Civil War.

Unfortunately for the town the railroad line through the area was built about two miles west and a depot was put in at what became the town of Eufaula. Almost all of the merchants moved to where the train depot was and North Fork Town became history, literally.

Now for the bad news. If you want to metal detect around this town you better know how to scuba dive! The state of Oklahoma decided to build a very large lake (Lake Eufaula) over the location and the town and all of the trails that went by it are now completely under water.

Why would I tell you about a great metal detecting place that you can’t get to? It’s about the history and maybe to remind you just a little that our hobby can be time sensitive and you should never let a good opportunity go by. You never know when somebody may decide to build something on top of that spot you want to check out.