Town of Salina history

The state's earliest mission, school, church and white cemetery were created in 1820 with the establishment of Union Mission in, five miles southeast of present day Chouteau.

Revoir operated this post until his death on June 24, 1821, when he was killed by a party of Cherokees.

He moved to an elaborate, two-story, log, dog-trot home named "La Grande Saline" in 1822 at present Salina and coordinated an extensive trading enterprise.

In the 1830's Eastern Cherokee arrived from Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina, where they had lost their homeland.

John Rogers, a proponent of the 1835 Treaty of New Echota, operated the salt works before he was dispossessed by the Cherokee Council.

He built a double log house, which he called "La Saline," and resided in the area with his Osage family until his death on December 25, 1838.

By 1839 Rogers was operating 115 salt kettles.

The Iroquois ConfederacyAbolition and the Underground RailwayEarly Syracuse History: 1790's to 1840'sThe Diary of Ellen Birdseye WheatonGerman Immigration to Onondaga County

He lost the salt works in 1844 to the Cherokee Nation under new law defining their territory.

By 1846, it was apparent that Syracuse would soon become a city.

Drilling for salt water, in 1859 Ross accidentally hit the first vein of oil in Indian Territory.

In 1862, during the American Civil War, Union soldiers came down unopposed on the Grand River to Salina and set all slaves free.

In July 1863 the first Cabin Creek engagement developed as Col.

Ravaged during the Civil War, the house was sold to the Cherokee Nation to be used as the Cherokee Orphan's Asylum in 1872.

In 1873, the Cherokee Nation purchased the Ross home for $26,000 and used it for years as the Cherokee Orphan Asylum.

A post office was established for the orphanage on January 10, 1876.

The orphanage burned November 17, 1903, and the younger children were transferred to the Whitaker Orphanage at Pryor.

The creation of Mayes county began with the constitution for the proposed State of Sequoyah in August 1905.

In 1906 the Cherokee Chief, Samuel Houston Mayes established a ferry and mercantile business on the Grand River.

Nine of these, including Mayes, became part of the state by the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention, effective at statehood on November 16, 1907.

When the town of Salina was surveyed in December 4, 1912, its estimated 563 residents patronized two general stores, a post office, a livery stable, a blacksmith shop, a dry goods shop, schools, churches, and a ferry.

In 1916 the town's first bridge supplanted the ferry.

Salina emerged as the Missouri, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway (MO&G, after 1919 the Kansas, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway) was building tracks southeast through Mayes County to Wagoner.

Restaurants, including the original Schrafft's, and hotels such as the Empire and the Yates were joined in 1922 by the Hotel Syracuse.

Conference City - Syracuse 1926: Brochure from 1926 explaining what Syracuse has to offer as a convention city (12.5 meg PDF file; source: Dick Case).

Serving as a shipping and retail point, Salina grew every decade thereafter, reaching 687 in 1940.

Looking East Down Ferry Street In The 1950's

However, unlike other ferries long forgotten, in 1962 more than 120 years later the Markham Ferry name would be preserved by the United States Corps of Engineers, which approved construction of Kerr Dam while referring to the location as The Markham Ferry Project.

Historical Highlights of Mayes County (Pryor, Okla.: Mayes County Historical Society, 1977).