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History · Mountain Park

Mountain Park’s post office opened in 1902, and 12% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1918 on and the census since 1910.

1902first post office
0on the National Register
12%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Mountain Park began

When was Mountain Park founded?

1902

The Mountain Park post office opened in 1902, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Burford (1901), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

First census: 449 in 19102020 census: 320124 years
Founding year: the first Mountain Park post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Mountain Park’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 Mountain Park are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 557 in 1980; 320 people lived here in 2020.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Mountain Park’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Mountain Park’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
People over time

Mountain Park, census by census

0100200300400500600192019401960198020002020Peak: 557

Peaked at 557 in 1980; 320 people lived here in 2020.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

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

The story

How Mountain Park came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Mountain Park.

Read it all →

The town of Mountain Park began as a trading post named Burford, near the Wichita Mountains in southern Oklahoma Territory. A post office was established at Burford in August 1901, just after the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache Reservation opened for settlement by non-Indians. In February 1902, the town that had sprung up around the trading post and changed its name to Mountain Park. Fires destroyed most of the wood-frame buildings along Main Street in 1906 and 1908. The town rebuilt with all brick structures.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Mountain Park, 1901 to 1980

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

  1. 20th century
  2. 1901Post officeThe Burford post office opens
  3. 1902Post officeThe Burford post office closes
  4. 1902Post officeThe Mountain Park post office opens
  5. 1956On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  6. 1980CensusPopulation peaks at 557
By decade

Mountain Park, decade by decade

Today1 recent
OKMap-doton-MountainPark2004OKMap-doton-MountainPark
On the map

Mountain Park on the map, 1956 to 1991

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

Mountain Park on the 1956 USGS mapMountain Park on the 1991 USGS map1956Snyder 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 Mountain Park.

Every building

Mountain Park, building by building, 1918

Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a sheet.

Mountain Park fire insurance map, 1918, sheet 11918Sheet 1 of 2
BrickWoodStone

Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices and old corners

Mountain Park’s post office has been open since 1902. Another post office, Burford, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Burford
1901–1902
Mountain Park
1902–today
19001960today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Svoboda

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Mountain Park’s history

What year was Mountain Park founded?

The Mountain Park post office opened in 1902, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

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 Wikimedia Commons (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.