LEHIGH
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LEHIGH |
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| NAME: Lehigh COUNTY: Coal ROADS: 2WD GRID: 4 CLIMATE: Cool winter, warm humid summertime BEST TIME TO VISIT: Anytime. |
COMMENTS:
On U.S. 75 eight miles northwest of Atoka. REMAINS: Abandoned downtown and some residents remain. |
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Lehigh was a coal mining town founded in 1880. There were over 3000 people living here at one time. In 1907 it became the county seat only to lose it a few years later. In 1912 the town burned and by 1980 there were only a few hundred residents remaining. -- Update: I just came back from there and only found two abandoned commercial buildings. The commercial buildings were directly on highway 3. One abandoned commercial building was a very handsome stone gas station. I am sending some pictures separately Most houses in somewhat dilapidated condition but many still occupied. If there was a "downtown", other than the two buildings mentioned, I missed it. I went there in search of a town that had an abandoned main street strip of commercial buildings, but none were in evidence. UPDATE: We live in lehigh, ok and read your article on it. You've got very good information, but it is incomplete. There were 7000 people living in Lehigh before the town hit hard times and the coal mines shut down. It was extremely large, but dried up after the depression. The two sites that Mr. Dodd visited were on the highway, but were not where the main street was. Main street is about five blocks west of the old gas station and post office. Main street still exists, but a lot of the old buildings are gone. The old bank is still there and has been renovated into a museum and the old jail(part of it) is behind it to the west along with some strip pits. Directly east of the bank is a house that was used as a boarding house during the mining days and is still standing as is a few of the older homes directly adjacent. Not much has survived, but as of 2-6-01 I went to do some metal detecting and found an 1916s barber dime. this was south of the cemetery and west of the bank. The cemetery has some old graves and shows some of what the town was like. Finally, all the information that I have given you came from my neighbors who have lived here all their lives and know the history well. One last note, my neighbor Louie who gave me most of this info met Pretty Boy Floyd more than once when he stopped in here on his way to a bank heist. - Jenny |
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