BOLEY

The largest and most well known of these towns is Boley; founded in 1903 and named after J. B. Boley, a railroad official of the Fort Smith and Western Railway. In 1911 the town boasted more than 4,000 citizens and many businesses, including two banks and three cotton gins. The town supported two colleges: Creek-Seminole College and Methodist Episcopal College. Boley also had its own electrical generating plant, water system, and ice plant. The Masonic Grand Lodge completed a majestic Masonic Temple around 1912.

Like many rural towns, Boley suffered through hard times in the 1920s and 1930s, and by World War II the population stood at 942. The population was 1,184 in 2010. Boley still hosts the nation’s oldest African-American community-based rodeo every Memorial Day weekend. The downtown business district is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been designated a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service.

LANGSTON

The town of Langston, in Logan County, is located on State Highway 33, ten miles northeast of Guthrie and about 30 miles north of Oklahoma City.

The name honors John Mercer Langston, an African-American educator, lawyer and U.S. representative from Virginia.Although E. P. McCabe has been credited for founding the town, Charles Robbins, a White man, owned the land and filed a town survey and plat in 1891. The two men opened the town on April 22, 1890. McCabe initiated the Langston City Herald in October 1890, using it to promote African-American migration to