Alfalfa

**Alfalfa County** is a County (United States)|county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2010 United States Census|2010 census, the population was 5,642. The county seat is Cherokee, Oklahoma|Cherokee.

Alfalfa County was formed at statehood in 1907 from Woods County, Oklahoma|Woods County. The county is named after William H. Murray|William H. "Alfalfa Bill" Murray, the president of the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention (meeting)|Convention and ninth governor of Oklahoma. He was instrumental creating the county from the original, much larger Woods county.

## History

### Statehood years onward

Alfalfa County's population was primarily of European-American ancestry. European immigrants and their children were numerous in the early 1900s. Germans from Russia (ethnic Germans who immigrated to American from Russia), many of whom were Mennonites, settled near Ingersoll, Oklahoma|Ingersoll, Driftwood, Oklahoma|Driftwood, Cherokee, and Goltry, Oklahoma|Goltry. Early censuses also reveal a considerable number of Bohemians from the Austro-Hungary Empire. At the turn of the twenty-first century, nearly 17 percent of county residents claimed German ancestry on the census. One Mennonite church (in Goltry) remained Template:As of.

Petroleum exploration and production has been an contributor to Alfalfa County's economy since the time of statehood. Agricultural pursuits, including wheat farming and livestock raising, were major contributors to Alfalfa County's economy during the twentieth century. Small-scale agriculture in its early years supported dozens of towns and dispersed rural communities, many of which no longer exist as a result of transportation and economic changes. After construction of railroads, those towns bypassed by rail service, such as Carroll, Carwile, Keith, and Timberlake, did not prosper for long.

## Economy

The largely rural economy is based on agricultural and energy production. Agriculture has altered to be based in industrial-scale farms and production. The county is the second-largest producer of winter wheat in Oklahoma. The United States Department of Agriculture|USDA estimated the county's winter wheat production at 5,957,000 bushels for 2015. The USDA also listed the county as the state's seventh-largest producer of sorghum in 2015, at 702,000 bushels.

Alfalfa County remains a major producer of petroleum and natural gas. In 2012, it was second (surpassed only by neighboring Woods County) in production of natural gas for Oklahoma counties, with an output of 419,606,514 Mcf (thousand cubic feet). It is also a major producer of crude oil, with total output of 3,395,396 barrels in 2012, which was fifth among Oklahoma counties.

## Geography

### Major highways

* File:US 64.svg|20px U.S. Route 64 in Oklahoma|U.S. Highway 64
* File:Oklahoma State Highway 8.svg|20px State Highway 8 (Oklahoma)|State Highway 8
* File:Oklahoma State Highway 8B.svg|20px State Highway 8B (Oklahoma)|State Highway 8B
* File:Oklahoma State Highway 11.svg|20px State Highway 11 (Oklahoma)|State Highway 11
* File:Oklahoma State Highway 38.svg|20px State Highway 38 (Oklahoma)|State Highway 38
* File:Oklahoma State Highway 45.svg|20px State Highway 45 (Oklahoma)|State Highway 45
* File:Oklahoma State Highway 58.svg|20px State Highway 58 (Oklahoma)|State Highway 58

### Adjacent counties

* Harper County, Kansas (northeast)
* Grant County, Oklahoma|Grant County (east)
* Garfield County, Oklahoma|Garfield County (southeast)
* Major County, Oklahoma|Major County (south)
* Woods County, Oklahoma|Woods County (west)
* Barber County, Kansas (northwest)

## Demographics

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The median age of the population was 46 years and 18% of the county's population was under the age of 18. Individuals 65 years of age or older accounted for 20.2% of the population.

There were a total of 2,022 households and 1,333 families in the county in 2010. There were 2,763 housing units. Of the 2,022 households, 23.4 percent included children under the age of 18 and slightly more than half (56.3%) included Marriage|married couples living together. Non-family households accounted for 34.1% of households. The average household size was 2.27 and the average family size was 2.81.

The median income for a household in the county was $42,730, and the median income for a family was $56,444. The per capita income for the county was $24,080. About 7 percent of families and 11 percent of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.4 percent of those age 65 or over.

## Life expectancy and health

Of 3,142 counties in the United States in 2014, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation ranked Alfalfa County 840 in the average life expectancy at birth of male residents and 1,999 in the average life expectancy of female residents. Males in Alfalfa County lived an average of 77.2 years and females lived an average of 79.6 years compared to the national average for life expectancy of 76.7 for males and 81.5 for females. In 2014, Alfalfa Country was one of only two counties in Oklahoma (the other being Logan County, Oklahoma|Logan County) in which males had a longer life expectancy than the national average. However, women had a shorter life expectancy than the national average. In the 1980-2014 period, the average life expectancy in Alfalfa County for females increased by 1.1 years while male longevity increased by 3.5 years compared to the national average for the same period of an increased life expectancy of 4.0 years for women and 6.7 years for men.

In 2020, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ranked Alfalfa country as first among 77 counties in Oklahoma in "health outcomes," as measured by length and quality of life.

## Notable people born in Alfalfa County

* R. Orin Cornett (1913 – 2002), physicist, was born in Driftwood. He earned a doctorate of physics and applied mathematics from the University of Texas in 1940, and invented the communication system for the hearing impaired known as Cued Speech. He taught at Oklahoma Baptist University, Penn State, and Harvard University. He also served as a vice president at Oklahoma Baptist and as the Vice President of Long Range Planning for Gallaudet University.
* Beryl Clark (1917 – 2000), born in Cherokee. Clark was a American football|football player with the Oklahoma Sooners football|Oklahoma Sooners who was selected as a second-team Halfback (American football)|halfback on the 1939 College Football All-America Team. Clark was drafted by the Chicago Cardinals in the 1940 NFL Draft and played for the Cardinals during the 1940 NFL season.
* Harold Keith (1903 – 1998), born in Lambert. He earned a master's degree in history and became the University of Oklahoma's first sports publicist from 1930 to 1969. He was awarded the 1958 Newbery Medal for his historical novel *Rifles for Watie*, which is based on the interviews he did for his Master's thesis. Keith was a 1987 inductee into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame (now a part of the Jim Thorpe Association).
* Harold G. Kiner (1924 – 1944), was born in Aline. As a private in the US Army during World War II, he received the U. S. military's highest decoration — the Medal of Honor — for his heroic actions.
* Wally Parks|Wallace "Wally" Parks (1913 – 2007) was born in Goltry. Parks was founder in 1951, chairman and president of the National Hot Rod Association, better known as NHRA. It helped establish drag racing as a legitimate amateur and professional motorsport. In 1948, he was named editor of *Hot Rod magazine*. Parks was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1992 and the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1993.

## Politics

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## Communities

### Towns

* Aline
* Amorita
* Burlington
* Byron
* Carmen
* Goltry
* Helena
* Jet
* Lambert

### Other unincorporated places

* Ashley, Oklahoma|Ashley
* Driftwood, Oklahoma|Driftwood
* Ingersoll, Oklahoma|Ingersoll
* Nescatunga, Oklahoma|Nescatunga
* Yewed, Oklahoma|Yewed

## NRHP sites

Main article: National Register of Historic Places listings in Alfalfa County, Oklahoma
The following sites in Alfalfa County are listed on the National Register of Historic Places:

* Aline IOOF Lodge No. 263, Aline
* Carmen IOOF Home, Carmen
* Carmen IOOF Lodge No. 84, Carmen
* Cherokee Armory, Cherokee
* Cherokee Friends Church, Cherokee
* Farmers' Exchange Elevator, Goltry
* Farmers' Federation Elevator, Cherokee
* Hotel Cherokee, Cherokee
* Ingersoll Tile Elevator, Ingersoll
* Sod House (Cleo Springs, Oklahoma)|Sod House, Cleo Springs, Oklahoma|Cleo Springs

## External links

* Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Alfalfa County
* Oklahoma Digital Maps: Digital Collections of Oklahoma and Indian Territory
* Railroads in Oklahoma in 1915 (including Alfalfa County Rail lines)

1. ↑ State & County QuickFacts. United States Census Bureau.
2. ↑ Find a County. National Association of Counties.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 Dianna Everett, "Alfalfa County," *Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture*. Accessed January 19, 2016.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Template:Cite book
5. ↑ Burl E. Self, "Black Dog (1780-1848)", *Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture*, accessed November 5, 2009
6. ↑ Full text of "Wah Kon Tah The Osage And White Man S Road".
7. ↑ U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, "History of the Great Salt Plains Lake" Accessed June 22, 2016
8. ↑ Louis F. Burns, "Osage", *Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture*, accessed November 5, 2009
9. ↑ ORIGIN OF COUNTY NAMES IN OKLAHOMA, Vol. 2, No. 1, March 1924. Oklahoma State University.
10. ↑ Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online - Alfalfa County (Oklahoma, USA). GAMEO.
11. ↑ Oklahoma Winter Wheat County Estimates. United States Department of Agriculture (December 11, 2015).
12. ↑ Oklahoma Grain Sorghum County Estimates. United States Department of Agriculture (March 2, 2016).
13. ↑ STATISTICAL DEPARTMENT 2012. OKLAHOMA CORPORATION COMMISSION - OIL AND GAS CONSERVATION DIVISION (2012).
14. ↑ Map: Where Natural Gas is Produced in Oklahoma. StateImpact (December 14, 2012).
15. ↑ Map: Where Oklahoma Oil is Produced. StateImpact (December 7, 2012).
16. ↑ 2010 Census Gazetteer Files. United States Census Bureau (August 22, 2012).
17. ↑ U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, "Welcome to Great Salt Plains Lake." Accessed May 12, 2016
18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Template:Cite map
19. ↑ County Profiles: Alfalfa County, Oklahoma. University of Washington.
20. ↑ US Health Map. University of Washington.
21. ↑ 2020 Oklahoma Report.
22. ↑ Dr. R. Orin Cornett Biography. National Cued Speech Association™.
23. ↑ Department of Physics History. University of Texas.
24. ↑ Template:Cite news
25. ↑ Beryl Clark. *Pro-Football-Reference.com*. Sports Reference LLC.
26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Norman Library literary landmark ceremony honors Harold Keith. The Norman Transcript (May 1, 2015).
27. ↑ Hall of Fame Members-Harold Keith. Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame.
28. ↑ 3 Oklahomans To Be Inducted Into Sports Hall. NewsOK.com (October 14, 1987).
29. ↑ Template:Cite news
30. ↑ Oklahoma Registration Statistics by County (November 1, 2019).