Hext, Oklahoma: Ghost Town
Hext, Oklahoma is a ghost town, which never really was much of a town at all.
Situated just north of I-40 in western Oklahoma, Hext is on the map, where historic Route 66 used to pass through. Old, decaying remnants of the original Route 66 remain, but are weathering and becoming overrun by vegetation.
Established in 1901, Hext housed a post office for a short time between 1901 and 1902. Census records never officially declared any residents in Hext, leaving it as a curious footnote in Oklahoma’s ghost town history.
In early 2020, all that remains in Hext is a collapsing school and a Baptist church. There is no shortage of farmland around the surrounding area, but few if any other noteworthy structures remain.
The school has been abandoned for several decades. It might be estimated that it was last used as a school no later than the 1960s, but very little information is available to confirm this. Almost nothing remains in the structure, although one of the rooms housed what looked like a vintage radio (or jukebox?), possibly from the 1940s.
The school was built in the 1930s by the Works Progress Administration. A large auditorium makes up close to half of the building. This area apparently became a barn for local farmers, housing several large bales of hay. The ceiling, which towers very high in a curved arch, is slowly crumbling, with about half of the tiles broken off. A pile of bricks block the inside portion of a doorway, perhaps intentionally.
A few smaller, dilapidated structures are noted just a stroll to the west and northwest of the school. A video on YouTube notes an underground shelter of sorts on the property, possibly intended as a tornado shelter. Another YouTuber briefly explored the nearby buildings, but not the underground structure.
Even when the school was being used, it is implied that Hext was barely even a community, and “just a gas station,” according to Jack Rittenhouse’s 1946 Guidebook to Route 66. Multiple sources say that the gas station was later converted into a home, which has long since been abandoned. Despite the lack of census data, perhaps this building was home to the final resident of Hext.
Hext may not have much of a history outside of the gas station and the school, but it is still home to weekly services at Hext Baptist Church.
A special thanks goes out to the following sources for information in this post:
Hext, Erick & Texola – Gateways to Oklahoma
https://www.legendsofamerica.com/ok-erick/
Hext, Oklahoma
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hext,_Oklahoma
Ghost Town: Hext OK
https://thefadedhistoryproject.com/2015/04/15/ghost-town-hext-ok/
About Hext, Oklahoma
https://www.theroute-66.com/hext.html
Abandoned School House with Tornado Shelter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOIZK8mjvfU
