Its Register listings are the Dow Grain Company Elevator and the St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church. Below: maps from 1892 on and the census since 1910.
Founding year: the first Okarche post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Okarche’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Okarche is more historic than 61% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Okarche’s overall grade.
Oklahoma towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Oklahoma town has 5.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Okarche’s 15.5 sits above most of its state (74% of Oklahoma towns have fewer) while its 2 listings outnumber those of 60% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B− to B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±8.5 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Okarche’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Okarche is located on land that before 1830 was within the historic area of the Wichita people. The location was in territory assigned to the Creek and Seminole people when removal of tribes from the Southeastern United States began in 1830. After the Civil War, parts of Indian Territory were designated for resettlement of Plains Indians. The site of the future town of Okarche was just inside the eastern border of the Cheyenne and Arapaho reservation.
The Okarche post office opened in 1890, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Okarche rank for history?
Okarche is more historic than 61% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Okarche?
Two places: the Dow Grain Company Elevator (listed 2000) and the St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church (2024).
How old are the homes in Okarche?
18% of Okarche’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.5 points), against a typical 7.0% for an Oklahoma town; the median home was built in 1979.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (4), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (2), 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.
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