Greenfield is in Blaine
County, in West Central Oklahoma. The 2010 population was 93. Greenfield’s
largest population was 303, in 1940.
The population is 88.6%
white, 9.8% Native American, and 1.6% African-American. Twenty percent of
families and 18% of the total population lives below the official Federal
poverty line.
Greenfield was established on
April 19, 1892, when the Cheyenne-Arapaho reservation was opened to non-Indian
settlement, part of the Federal government’s plan of allotting a specific number
of acres to each Indian family, in order to make farmers of the former Plains
buffalo hunters. When the requisite number of acres were allocated, many
millions were left over, and designated open for non-Indian usage.
Within a few years, the town had two hardware
stores, four general merchandise stores, garages, filling stations, cafés, a
cotton gin, an elevator, and a bank. “In 1908 in anticipation of an
oil boom, several other businesses opened, including a hotel, a general store,
a pool hall, and a butcher shop. Settlers organized Baptist, Nazarene, and
Presbyterian congregations.”
The old high school is
pictured here:
Left of the school is an
underground concrete storm shelter with two entries. The shelter is not visible
in the above-linked photograph, but is visible if you want to do a search on
Greenfield. In fact, there are photographs containing several old, empty houses
and buildings available with a Greenfield search.
The North Canadian River is a
few miles west of town.
