Finding your roots
A real estate listing in Snyder helps demonstrate use of a new booklet on how to do land research from the Oklahoma Historical Society.
The Shelton halfdugout, the remains of a territory-era plains dwelling in southwest Oklahoma, is a great example of how state land history can broadside the present.
Broker John McElroy's timely email from Tumbleweed Territory Real Estate in Snyder lets me use the home including the historic structure, just listed for sale with his agent Bill Tucker, to demonstrate use of a new booklet from the Oklahoma Historical Society.
The listing is a 1,675-square-foot house some 10 miles south of Mangum that incorporates the 322-square-foot dugout, which was dug out, with walls reinforced by blocks, in 1892. The dugout, used as the master bedroom, now has a concrete floor.
It and 240 acres are being offered for $350,000.
The home has central heat and air, a 2016 septic tank and lateral lines, water out of Duke, power via the Harmon Electric Co-op out of Hollis, and is in the Mangum school district. The land is suitable for wheat or cotton and is home to sandhill cranes, deer and quail.
The booklet is "A Guide to Researching Land in Oklahoma at the Oklahoma Historical Society," by Katie Bush, research librarian at the Oklahoma History Center. It combines history and how-to useful for anybody doing land research in the state.
Tucker said that owner Jim Shelton's grandfather acquired the dugout in 1926 and moved in. Shelton's parents lived there until the late 1940s; neither he nor his three brothers grew up at the farm, but spent a lot of time there.
Here's some how-to:
Tucker sent me a map pinpointing the property's location south of Mangum and west of Martha: SE
¼, and E ½, SW ¼, Sec. 10-3N-22W.
That's the southeast quarter, plus the east half of the southwest quarter, of Section 10, Township 3 North, Range 22 West of the Indian Base and Meridian.
The booklet explains how to tell that on page 30: "How to Read Legal Descriptions from Your Ancestor's Land Patent."
Here's some history, from page 13:
The home with the half-dugout started out in Texas. It's in Greer County, which along with Harmon, Jackson and Beckham counties, were part of Texas until 1896.
The booklet summarizes the claims and counterclaims between Texas and the United States starting with an 1860 law and centering on whether the Texas border lay along the Red River or the North Fork of the Red River.
The Supreme Court found that the border lay along the Red River proper, not the North Fork, and that the land belonged to the United States, and therefore to Oklahoma Territory.
Surviving dugouts and half dugouts are rare. The Oklahoma Historical Society knows of only a dozen or so, and not necessarily inhabitable. Tucker said he'd heard there were just three. That might be on the high side.
For more on the dugout house, call Bill Tucker with Tumbleweed Territory Real Estate in Snyder at 580301-0337.