Osage County is the largest county by area in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Created in 1907 when Oklahoma was admitted as a state, the county is named for and is home to the federally recognized Osage Nation. The county is coextensive with the Osage Nation Reservation, established by treaty in the 19th century when the Osage relocated there from Kansas. The county seat is in Pawhuska, one of the first three towns established in the county. The total population of the county as of 2020 was 45,818.
Burbank is a town in western Osage County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 141 at the 2010 census, a 9 percent decrease from the figure of 155 recorded in 2000.
Fairfax is a town in Osage County, Oklahoma, United States. The Osage Nation reservation is coterminous with the county. The population was 1,380 at the 2010 census, down 11.3 percent from the figure of 1,555 recorded in 2000. It was the home of the ballerinas Maria and Marjorie Tallchief.
Foraker is a town in Osage County, Oklahoma, United States. It was named for Ohio Senator Joseph B. Foraker. The Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is southeast of town. The official population peaked at 415 in 1910 and has declined steadily since 1930. The population was only 18 at the 2010 census, a 21.7 percent decline from 23 in 2000.
Pawhuska is a city in and the county seat of Osage County, Oklahoma, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 2,984. It was named after the 19th-century Osage chief, Paw-Hiu-Skah, which means "White Hair" in English. The Osage tribal government, which opened offices in Pawhuska in 1872 when its reservation was established in Indian Territory, continues to be based in Pawhuska.
Shidler is a city in Osage County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 328 in the 2020 census, a decline from the figure of 441 recorded in 2010.
Webb City is an unincorporated town in northwestern Osage County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 62 at the 2010 census, a 34.7 percent decline from the figure of 95 recorded in 2000. It was named for its founder, Horace Webb, on whose land the town was founded. The Webb City post office opened December 16, 1922.
Ponca City is a city in Kay County in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The city was named after the Ponca tribe. Ponca City had a population of 24,424 in the 2020 census, down from 25,387 at the time of the 2010 census.
The Osage Indian murders were a series of murders of Osage in Osage County, Oklahoma, during the 1910s–1930s. Newspapers described the increasing number of unsolved murders and deaths among young adults as the "Reign of Terror". Most took place from 1921 to 1926. Some sixty or more wealthy, full-blood Osage persons were reported killed from 1918 to 1931. Newer investigations indicate that other suspicious deaths during this time could have been misreported or covered-up murders, including those of individuals who were heirs to future fortunes. Further research has shown that the death toll may have been in the hundreds.
The Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, in Osage County, Oklahoma near Foraker, Oklahoma, is the largest protected tract of tallgrass prairie in the world. Managed by The Nature Conservancy, the preserve contains 39,650 acres (160 km2) owned by the Conservancy and another 6,000 acres (24 km2) leased in what was the original tallgrass region of the Great Plains that stretched from Texas to Manitoba.
Ernest Whitworth Marland was an American lawyer, oil businessman in Pennsylvania and Oklahoma, and politician who was a U.S. representative and Oklahoma governor. He served in the United States House of Representatives from northern Oklahoma, 1933 to 1935 and as the tenth governor of Oklahoma from 1935 to 1939. As a Democrat, he initiated a "Little Deal" in Oklahoma during the Great Depression, working to relieve the distress of unemployed people in the state, and to build infrastructure as investment for the future.
Gray Horse is an unincorporated community in Osage County, Oklahoma, United States. The post office was established May 5, 1890, and discontinued December 31, 1931. It was named for Gray Horse (Ko-wah-hos-tsa), an Osage medicine man.
John Joseph Mathews became one of the Osage Nation's most important spokespeople and writers of the mid-20th century, and served on the Osage Tribal Council from 1934 to 1942. Mathews was born into an influential Osage family, the son of William Shirley Mathews an Osage Nation tribal councilor. He studied at the University of Oklahoma, Oxford University, and the University of Geneva and served as a pilot during World War I.
The E.W. Marland Mansion is a 43,561 square feet (4,046.9 m2) Mediterranean Revival-style mansion located in Ponca City, Oklahoma, United States. Built by oil baron and philanthropist Ernest Whitworth (E.W.) Marland, as a display of wealth at the peak of the 1920s oil boom, the house is one of the largest residences in the southwestern United States, and is known as the "Palace on the Prairie." It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1973, and is now a museum open to the public.
Carter Nine was an unincorporated community in Osage County, Oklahoma, United States, located 2.5 miles (4.0 km) south of Shidler. Carter Nine had a post office, which opened on August 14, 1928. Carter Nine began as a company-owned town to house workers for an oil refinery operated by the Carter Oil Company. The company originally planned to build housing in Burbank, but decided the cost would be too high. Instead it created its own town in 1922, known as Carter Nine. The name Carter Nine was derived from a combination of the Carter Oil Company and the community's location in Section 9 of Township 26 North, Range 6 East.
The Osage Nation operates seven casinos in Oklahoma, under the name Osage Casinos. The 25th largest tribe in the United States, the people are based on their reservation encompassing Osage County, Oklahoma. It is larger than the U.S. states of Delaware and Rhode Island.
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI is a 2017 nonfiction book by American journalist David Grann about the Osage murders. Time magazine listed Killers of the Flower Moon as one of its top ten nonfiction books of 2017.
The Osage Railway was incorporated in 1921 to accommodate traffic from the oil fields located in the Osage Nation. The first part of its mainline was constructed in 1922 from a connection with the Midland Valley Railroad at Foraker, Oklahoma, to the town of Shidler, Oklahoma, about 10 miles southwest. The line was independently owned from the Midland Valley, but was jointly operated with the Midland Valley and two other lines as part of the Muskogee Roads. Beginning July 2, 1923 and completing in early 1924, the Osage Railway's trackage was extended northwesterly from Shidler through Webb City to Lyman, Oklahoma, about another 6 miles.
Lyman was a town in Osage County, Oklahoma, located about 20 miles northeast of Ponca City, Oklahoma, and 30 miles southeast of Winfield, Kansas, the two closest population centers. It became an oilfield boomtown shortly after the discovery of the Burbank field in 1920. It was named after A.J. Lyman, who platted the town and sold the lots.
Henry F. Grammer was an American cowboy, bootlegger, and murderer from Texas. Grammer was among the perpetrators of the Osage Indian murders. He died in 1923 under suspicious circumstances during a federal investigation of these events. For his career as a cowboy, he was posthumously inducted into the National Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2000.
