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History · Goltry

Goltry’s post office opened in 1904, and 39% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listing is the Farmers' Exchange Elevator. Below: maps from 1969 on and the census since 1910.

1904first post office
1on the National Register
39%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Goltry began

When was Goltry founded?

1904

The Goltry post office opened in 1904, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 320 in 19102020 census: 251122 years
Founding year: the first Goltry post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Goltry’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Goltry are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Goltry’s homes were built before 1958.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Goltry’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Goltry’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Goltry came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Goltry.

Read it all →

Originally part of the Cherokee Outlet, the area of present-day Goltry was not open to non-Indian settlement until September 1893. After the opening, a settlement called Karoma emerged on the John Streich farm, approximately one and one-half miles southeast of present Goltry. The Arkansas Valley and Western Railway (later part of the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway, or Frisco, system) constructed a line in 1904 from east to west apart the former Woods County that became present-day Alfalfa County, after the creation of the latter 1907. The people of Karoma moved most of their homes and businesses closer to the railroad. In 1904, John Linden’s townsite company surveyed and platted the town on 240 acres. The new community was incorporated and named for Enid resident Charles Goltry, who owned the land and whose milling company constructed a grain elevator there. Many of the early settl…

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Goltry, 1904 to 1969

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 20th century
  2. 1904Post officeThe Goltry post office opens
  3. 1913Born hereWally Parks is born here
  4. 1969On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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On the map

Goltry on the map, 1969 to 1990

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Goltry. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Goltry on the 1969 USGS mapGoltry on the 1985 USGS mapGoltry on the 1990 USGS map1969Goltry sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Goltry.

On the National Register

1 historic place in Goltry

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
1983
Farmers' Exchange Elevator
Farmers' Exchange Elevator
Structures
All 1 listings
Farmers' Exchange ElevatorStructure · listed 1983

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

People over time

Goltry, census by census

0100200300192019401960198020002020Peak: 346

Between 249 and 346 people in every census since 1910.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Goltry’s Wikipedia page.

Questions about Goltry’s history

What year was Goltry founded?

The Goltry post office opened in 1904, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Goltry?

One place: the Farmers' Exchange Elevator (listed 1983).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.