Abandoned Oklahoma

05/29/2026

Location: Tallchief Mansion (Tall Chief)
Full History: https://abandonedok.com/tallchief-mansion/
PSA: The Tallchief Mansion WILL be restored. It is currently in joint ownership between the Osage Nation and the Tallchief family while they wait for all heirs to turn of age.
Short History: Known as the Tallchief Mansion, it was built to last with a buff brick exterior and a terra cotta roof. Boasting ten rooms, Alex's wife, Ruth, made this a social center with parties and dinners. During their dinners or social gatherings, talking, laughing, music, cards, refreshments, dancing, and even singing were normal. Miss Nell Little even called them "royal entertainers" in 1921. Sometimes, they even did a little too well at entertaining. The Fairfax Chief ran a story in February 1925 that ten persons were arraigned before the justice of peace for disturbing the peace at the Alex Tallchief home during a "golden jubilee."

But its size wasn't the only thing mesmerizing about this place; its location was too. Sitting on a hill on the west side of town, this home overlooked most and served as some representation of the Tallchief family's influence. The hill it sits upon, still to this day, is largely undeveloped, something that can be credited to the Tallchief family for keeping this land in the family through the last hundred years.

CONTINUE READING at https://abandonedok.com

05/04/2026

04/24/2026

The roof caved in at this abandoned antique store, but everything's still here. Furniture. Plates. Elvis memorabilia. A room full of vintage Coca-Cola containers I'd buy in a heartbeat. This antique store just closed down one day and nobody's been back since. In small towns like this, places like this never get restored. They just decay until there's nothing left.

What would you have bought if it were still open?



Note: I'm not naming the location to respect the building and prevent it from being looted or vandalized.

04/06/2026

The new documentary about Hopewell Baptist Church (Teepee Church) is now live, please go check it out because we can’t lose another icon!

https://youtu.be/rGRM1Jwx9r0

04/03/2026

NEW Documentary out NOW! https://youtu.be/rGRM1Jwx9r0

Have you ever driven past this place and wondered what this place was? Or how it ended up here? Well, our latest YouTube Episode answers all thos question and more!

I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that I spent 4 years making a documentary about the iconic Teepee shaped church just down the road from me.

Of course, I wasn’t working on it all four years straight, but was able to find pockets of time in my schedule to make this happen because I believe it can be turned into something!

Also a huge thank you to Terry Ward for putting up with me and dealing with all of my entry requests over the years as well as Connie and Naomi for helping track down all of the historic documents that help tell the whole story of this place. 

To everyone who agreed to an interview, thank you! Last year, I learned that Nelson Brackin, who was an apprentice under Bruce Goff before becoming an architect himself, passed away before I could release the documentary. He was very sweet man very knowledgeable and I’m thankful he was able to be a part of it. Rest in peace Nelson, there were so many great parts of your interview I’d love to use for something else one day. 

What do you think it could be turned into? And please give it a watch, I’d love to know what you think!
Full Documentary: https://youtu.be/rGRM1Jwx9r0

04/02/2026

Everyone has been telling me that this Iconic TeePee shaped church in OKC is too far gone...
Full Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGRM1Jwx9r0

That the shape and size are too unusal & that the asbestos alone makes it not worth it... They say nobody's going to invest in a condemned teepee-shaped church sitting on a busy corner outside Oklahoma City.

Do you think they are right?

But I've been staring at this building since I was a kid, and I'm not ready to write it off. Not when it was designed by Bruce Goff, one of the most unconventional architects this country ever produced, and built by hand from surplus oil field pipe by the congregation that worshipped in it. Not when there are people like Terry Ward who have given decades of their life to keeping it standing. And not when the Hopewell Heritage Foundation fixed that roof when nobody thought it was worth saving either.

WATCH DOCUMENTARY HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGRM1Jwx9r0

03/16/2026

I met a baby goat while exploring an abandoned school!

While driving through the Oklahoma countryside I stopped at the two-room Four Mile School that has been closed for many years. A very kind woman who was on the property offered to show me around the building and share a bit of its history.

But the real highlight of the visit wasn’t inside the school.

She introduced me to all the animals living on the property, including a baby goat that had just been born the day before. And apparently all the goats are named after alcohol, which I thought was hilarious.

Not something I expected to find while exploring an abandoned school, but definitely one of the more memorable surprises I’ve had out on the road.

03/13/2026

HELP! The Iconic APCO sign was stolen and everyone including us wants to see it returned home!

This metal sign has been sitting outside this store since the 1950's but the building beside it goes back further. This scenery was featured in the movie Rain Man, and we held several clean up events to help the former owner, Carl Lehman, turn this into a rest stop/Museum. If you know where this sign is or come across it, please get in touch with Cheryl Lockstone so we can bring it back home!

More Photos/History>>> https://abandonedok.com/ws-kelly/

02/20/2026

Washington School - Collinsville (PRIVATE PROPERTY)
Read Full History: https://abandonedok.com/washington-school-collinsville/
Snippet of History: Harwood School 1912-1915
Starting off originally as the Harwood School, it was built in 1912 to replace the Central School which had burned down. The three-story building had high school students occupying the third story until Central High School could be rebuilt. After that, it became an elementary school for grades 1-6.

Washington School 1915-2015
It didn't bear the name Harwood for that long, only lasting a few years before it was renamed Washington Elementary School, which would remain the name for the next hundred years.

02/13/2026

The three-story abandoned hospital behind the Osage County Sheriff’s Office is expected to be demolished at some point in the future. Although we understand why, as preservationists, that’s still tough to hear, but we’re grateful to Sheriff Bart Perrier for giving us access before that happens.

Come with us as we tour the entire hospital and document what’s still inside.

Full Article here: https://abandonedok.com/osage-county-hospital/

02/06/2026

Location: Tribbey School
Read Full History: https://abandonedok.com/tribbey-school/
Snippet of History: The small town of Tribbey, Oklahoma, was established by stalwart pioneers a few years before Oklahoma became a state. The first Tribbey School was a one-room building on the south side of town and named "Old Friendship/Weeden School".

Over the next decade or so the town continued to grow with the establishment of the Santa Fe railroad through the southern part of the county. Tribbey's one-room school was outgrown and additional rooms were added to compensate for the new students.

While the Tribbey School district was booming, other area schools, beginning with Ashby and Prospect, realized the benefit of having a larger school presence and consolidated into Tribbey. Soon after Solomon's Temple, Council Creek, Pitman, Old Morrell, and Trousdale schools also consolidated into the district.

Around the same time, the campaign to fit Tribbey with an accredited high school program began under the guidance of Supt. Oliver Akin. He was responsible for getting the ninth grade established, and closely following the end of World War 1 a four-year high school was established. Tribbey was experiencing joyful growing pains and the small white frame building would no longer be suitable.

And while in my research, I discovered many people could not locate a built date for this school, I began to get a bit worried that I wouldn't either. But thankfully, one student helped make sure Tribbey School history was documented forever in an essay they wrote and published in 1957. It details that this large brick building was built in 1921 to accommodate the large growth the district was experiencing.

Superintendent Henry Weston was the first to serve in this new school building. They considered 1921 a banner year for Tribbey as it was the year of growth and their first high school graduate, Abbott Bailey. It would be another two years before they would have another one.

New trees were planted a few years later on the school grounds, leafing out beautifully. Another big improvement was the purchase of two brand new school trucks from the "Wanette Motor man."

CONTINUE READING AT https://abandonedok.com