Kusa, Oklahoma

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Kusa is a populated place located in Okmulgee County, Oklahoma, [1] [2] about 4 miles east-northeast of Henryetta. [3] Officially incorporated March 27th, 1916, [4] and located in the Henryetta Coal Mining District, [5] Kusa became a coal mining and lead smelting boomtown, complete with movie theaters, hotels, and banks. [6] It even had its own newspaper, The Kusa Industrial, which published between 1914 and 1920. [7] The population grew to a size of about 3,500, making it the largest town in the county at one point. [4]

While coal mining was the major draw, [4] the town was the site of a 47-acre horizontal retort smelter which processed zinc ore beginning in 1915, but ending in 1928. [8] Brickmaking grew up in the 1920s spurred by the need to make the construction grade bricks, fireclay retorts, and clay condensers that were used in the zinc smelting operation; but, those facilities were cleared by 1949. [9] Along with these shutdowns and the closure of the coal mines, [10] Kusa's anticipated bright future was short-circuited by the railroad bypassing the locale in favor of Henryetta, [4] and later by the highway (Highway 266) bypassing it to the north. [6] The town's incorporation was eventually dissolved, [4] and nothing is now left of the original buildings except foundations, although some people still live in the area. [6]

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References

  1. ↑ "Kusa (in Okmulgee County, OK) Populated Place Profile". HomeTownLocator.com. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
  2. ↑ "Kusa". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior . Retrieved June 3, 2021.
  3. ↑ "Henryetta, Oklahoma to Kusa, Oklahoma". Google Maps. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Oklahoma's secret past-- ghost towns of Oklahoma". Keaton Fox, Fox 25, November 19, 2015. 19 November 2015. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
  5. ↑ Franks, Kenny Arthur (January 1997). Oklahoma, Its Land and Its People, p41. ISBN   978-0-8061-9944-3 . Retrieved May 13, 2021.
  6. 1 2 3 "KUSA". GhostTowns.com. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
  7. ↑ "The Kusa Industrial". Newspapers.com. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
  8. ↑ "The Environmental Legacy of Smelting in Oklahoma". Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), April 1, 2020. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
  9. ↑ "Phytoremediation of Heavy Metal Contaminated Soil". CiteSeerX   10.1.1.425.2768 .
  10. ↑ "Cities of Oklahoma, Page 16, Edited by John W. Morris, Oklahoma Historical Society, 1979". 1979. Retrieved May 13, 2021.

35°26′57″N95°55′27″W / 35.44917°N 95.92417°W / 35.44917; -95.92417

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