History
The community began in 1899 when two men, J.L. Avant and E.E. Blake, decided to locate a town in the Washita River Valley.
Because of governmental stipulations that an Indian could sell no more than one half of a 160-acre (0.6 km2) allotment, the men made plans to purchase 320 acres (1.3 km2) from four different Indians - Hays, Shoe-Boy, Nowahy, and Night Killer - and paid them each $2,000 for 80 acres (320,000 m2) to begin the small settlement of Washita Junction.
Congressional approval for the sale was granted in 1902 and Washita Junction quickly developed. The first businesses were the townsite office, a newspaper called the Custer County Chronicle, and the First National Bank Building. When a post office was started, the postal department would not accept the name of Washita Junction, so the town was named after the late Judge Clinton Irwin. The Frisco Railroad later turned the town into an important shipping center for the area.
Clinton also benefited from the presence of U.S. Highway 66. Like most other cities and towns on Route 66, Clinton was home of tourist businesses including several restaurants, cafés, motels and filling stations. The Pop Hicks Restaurant, which opened in 1936 and burned in 1999, was once the longest running restaurant on Route 66. The U.S. Highway 66 Association, founded 1927 in Tulsa, curtailed its activity when World War II rationing of rubber and fuel disrupted leisure travel. After the war, Jack and Gladys Cutberth revived the organization in Clinton, where it promoted the "Main Street of America" from 1947 until it disbanded in the 1980s. The late Dr. Walter S. Mason Jr. operated a Best Western from 1964-2003 which welcomed Elvis Presley as an occasional guest in the 1960s.
Today, cross-country traffic passes Clinton to the south on Interstate 40, which bypassed the city in 1970. Clinton remains a popular tourist stop as one of the largest Route 66 cities between Oklahoma City and Amarillo, Texas. Much of the old U.S. 66 route that passed through the city is now designated as an I-40 business loop; the town became home to the first state sponsored Route 66 Museum in the nation.
In 1942, the federal government built a naval airfield at nearby Burns Flat and named it Naval Air Station Clinton. During the World War II period, the population of Clinton grew to nearly 7,000 residents. In 1949, Naval Air Station Clinton was deactivated and the airfield was deeded to the City of Clinton, specifying that the land could be recaptured in case of national emergencies. Later, the government leased the site back and used it as Clinton-Sherman Air Force Base a bomber base supporting 4123rd Strategic Wing, then the 70th Bombardment Wing, Heavy of the Strategic Air Command (SAC), operating B-52 Stratofortress and KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft. Purchasing more land, the site soon expanded to more than 3,500 acres (14 km2), where both the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy utilized the airfield for both operational and training purposes. When military operations were de-emphasized, the Clinton-Sherman base was designated for closure in 1969. The entire complex was deeded to the City of Clinton in 1971 and three years later became the Clinton-Sherman Industrial Airpark.
Clinton is also home to the Clinton Daily News, a six-day daily newspaper edited by Rod Serfoss which has a circulation of 4,500. The newspaper has been published continuously from its inception in 1927 to the current day.
Read more about this topic: Clinton, Oklahoma
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