| City/Town: • Mountain Park |
| Location Class: • Jail |
| Built: • ~1912 | Abandoned: • N/A |
| Status: • Abandoned |
| Photojournalist: • Jeff Hodge |
The Mountain Park Jail is an intriguing one being two stories and much larger compared to the other jails featured on our site. This being such a big jail seems to be that of a county jail rather than a city jail somewhat resembling the Allen County Jail in Kansas. The jail is depicted on 1918 fire insurance maps so a built date prior to that can be safely assumed.
Some of the stories depicting the jail include the following:
Antlers News-Record Feb 17, 1911 – Several posses with bloodhounds are scouring the neighboring hills in an effort to find some trace of C.E. Bull chairman of the board of commissioners who as a result of the bitter rivalry between Snyder and Mountain Park, growing out of the fight over the location of the county seat of Swanson (Kiowa) County, was at 4 o’clock this morning taken prisoner by three masked men who forcibly entered his home on a farm near here carried Bull away. Wyatt Staples an employee of Bull attempted to prevent the abduction by threatening the men with a shotgun but they got the drop on Staples and shot and killed him. J.W. Armstrong another member of the Board of Commissioners is held prisoner in the Mountain Park Jail.
The posse from Snyder at noon located C.E. Bull the kidnapped commissioner of Swanson County, in jail at Mountain Park. They believe they know the identity of the three men who abducted Bull and killed another man early this morning and arrests are expected soon. The trouble is the direct result of the decision of the district court at Lawton Saturday afternoon dissolving the new county in which Mountain Park had been declared the temporary county seat.
The Weekly Democrat Chief August 19, 1915 – Tom McAlester who was arrested in Lawton last week after breaking out of the Mountain Park Jail has been brought to Hobart and arraigned on a charge of violating the prohibition law. Monday morning he entered a plea of not guilty and was held under a bond of $500 for trial in the county court.
Gallery Below of Mountain Park Jail
https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4024mm.g4024mm_g071851918/?sp=1&r=0.342,0.987,0.113,0.077,0
https://www.newspapers.com/image/588738684/?terms=%22mountain%20park%20jail%22&match=1
https://www.newspapers.com/image/585075599/?terms=%22mountain%20park%20jail%22&match=1
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