Red Fork, Oklahoma
unincorporated community in Tulsa County, Oklahoma
Red Fork is a community in Southwest Tulsa. It was founded in 1883 as a railhead on the Arkansas River. It is famous for being the location of the first oil well in Tulsa County, the Sue A. Bland #1.
Naming of the town
The town is sometimes said to have been named for the Cimarron River, but both forks there are far upstream and both are reddish. The river through Tulsa is a not a fork but a merger of the Cimmaron, but it is the reddish fork of the Arkansas from where it joins the normally blue-green Verdigris River downstream. The contrast in color was striking to early explorers coming upstream, and resulted in the naming of the river.
Early days
Red Fork originally was on what was to become Route 66, stretching back to Lookout Mountain and west towards Berryhill. After the oil discovery, it looked like Red Fork might outdo Tulsa, but Tulsa boosters succeeded in attracting new people and businesses there. Also, Red Fork was limited in size by the bend of the river and by the steep hills. Tulsa annexed Red Fork on October 16, 1927, and in 1928 the post office lost its separate status and became Red Fork Station (now West Tulsa Station) of the Tulsa Post Office.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Red Fork, Oklahoma” as unincorporated community in Tulsa County, Oklahoma. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as unincorporated community in Tulsa County, Oklahoma. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7304162. Authority coordinates are 36.106, -96.024. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1883, 1927 and 1928.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Red Fork, Oklahoma”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Red Fork, Oklahoma primary sources, Red Fork, Oklahoma archive and Fork research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Red Fork, Oklahoma”?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Red Fork, Oklahoma” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.