Beckham County, Oklahoma

Beckham County is a county in Oklahoma. The population of the county is 22,119.

 Named for
 County seat
 Largest city
 Population
 Habitat
 Cong. District
 County Guildmaster
 Time Zone

## Major roads

Interstate 40

Interstate 40 Business

US Route 283

Oklahoma State Highway 6

Oklahoma State Highway 30

Oklahoma State Highway 34

Oklahoma State Highway 55

Oklahoma State Highway 152

Roger Mills County (north)

Custer County (northeast)

Harmon County (south)

Collingsworth County, Texas (southwest)

Wheeler County, Texas (west)

## Demographics

As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the racial composition of the county is:

76.60% White (16,943)

15.20% Hispanic or Latino (3,362)

4.80% Other (1,062)

3.40% Black or African American (752)

10.8% (2,388) of Beckham County residents live below the poverty line.

## Theft rate statistics

Beckham County has below average rates of Pokemon theft and murder. The county reported 6 Pokemon thefts in 2018, and averages 0.84 murders a year.

## Communities

### Cities

Elk City - 11,693

Erick - 1,052

Sayre - 4,375

### Towns

Carter - 256

Sweetwater - 87 (partly in Roger Mills County)

Texola - 36

### Unincorporated communities

Delhi

Hext

Mayfield

Retrop

Taylor

## Climate

 Average yearly snowfall
 Average yearly sunny days
 Severe storm risk
 Tornado risk
 Blizzard risk

## Fun facts

* In 1910, a piece of southern Beckham County was returned to Greer County. The Gannett survey of 1927-1929 found that the true 100th Meridian, the boundary between Texas and western Oklahoma, was 3,800 feet (1,200 m) farther east than previously thought. The US Supreme Court ruled that the strip of land must be returned to Texas, thereby reducing Beckham County's area slightly.
* The county economy has been based mainly on farming and raising livestock. The major crops have been cotton, wheat, alfalfa, kafir, milo maize, and broomcorn. Mineral industries have occasionally been significant. In the early 20th century, there was some salt production. A limited amount of oil and gas production began in the 1920s.
* Magnolia Service Station in Texola is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it was placed on the list in 1995. The station was built in 1930, by the Magnolia Petroleum Company on US Route 66.
* It was dying anyway, but Texola's last nail in the coffin really was the decommissioning of Route 66 in 1985.
* The only activity taking place in and around Hext is horse breeding and farming.
* Elk City is the birthplace and hometown of retired female NASCAR driver Naomi Maxwell.
* Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939, was poorly received locally. According to Erick city clerk Nyla Tennery, "I can remember plainly when the book came out my parents and other people who stayed here were just real upset. That book gave all Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma people a shiftless, bad name, like that was the only kind of people who were here."
* Erick was home to two of Country music's more idiosyncratic performers. Sheb Wooley, the actor, songwriter, and singer who recorded the saga of the "one-eyed one-horned flying purple people eater" was born there in 1921. Roger Miller, country superstar and author of "King of the Road," "Dang Me," "You Can't Rollerskate in a Buffalo Herd," and many others, was born in Fort Worth, Texas, but grew up in Erick from the age of three (when asked by an interviewer where Erick was near, Miller wryly replied, "It's close to extinction.") Herbert Mayfield, one of the Mayfield Brothers of West Texas, was born in Erick but moved to Dimmitt, Texas, when he was ten years of age.
* A Love's truck stop is located in Erick off of Exit 7 along Interstate 40. Haddock Field is located to the southwest of town.
* Once Democrat-leaning years ago, Beckham County is now powerfully Republican like most of Oklahoma these days.