WAYNOKA—For over a century, the Northwest Oklahoma community formerly known as Keystone has been serving up food and transportation for commoners and celebrities alike.
In fact, in the late 1920s, Waynoka was the Grand Central Station of Northwest Oklahoma as tin gooses flew and iron horses ran in and out of town.
It all began when Congress gave a right-of-way grant in July 1884 to the Harper & Western Railroad, a subsidiary of the Santa Fe Railroad, to build a rail line across the western part of the Cherokee Outlet from Kiowa, Kan., to the Texas Panhandle.
The Cimarron River rail bridge was completed in February 1887. Less than three months into the new rail line, a locomotive crossing the Cimarron rail bridge slipped off the bridge, landed in the river, and was engulfed in quicksand.
It was then that the railroad chose a diagonal line that crossed the Cimarron River at the mouth of Dog Creek. An old boxcar was set off to a side track in the sand hills there and named Keystone Station.
Converted boxcars served as 14 train stations along the 114-mile diagonal Kansas-to-Texas rail line. Those Oklahoma stations were Warren, Alva, Noel, Eagle Chief, Keystone, Nimrod (became Heman in 1908), Sutton, Griffin, Warwick, Woodward, Orlando, Norris, Gage, and Stockton.
All eastbound and westbound trains were watered at Keystone because there were many springs nearby. As a result, a large hole was scraped in the bottom of Dog Creek about 100 yards from the depot to catch water for the steam engines passing through.
At the time, the train station had the largest round house with 16 bays and the second largest ice plant on the rail line that produced 241 tons every day by German POWs from Alva who had their own barracks on site.
Two trains, carrying both freight and passengers, ran daily. The first stockyards were built north of Keystone, which was named for the cattle brand of T.S. Major, one of the owners of the local Walnut Grove Cattle Pool.
The name Keystone was changed to Waynoka in April 1889 at the request of the U.S. Postal Department. The very first U.S. Post Office on the rail line also was established at Waynoka that same year, according to Charlene Bixler, who serves as president of Waynoka Historical Society and is therefore curator of Waynoka Air and Rail Museum.
The museum is housed next to the historical Waynoka depot inside the original Harvey House.
Fine dining on the rail
Armed with a dream and $10 upon his arrival in America in 1850, English teenager Fred Harvey tried his hand as a restaurateur but soon failed in his initial efforts. So, he took a job with the railroad.
By 1865, he had become the general western agent for the Burlington Northern Railroad. Harvey quickly discovered the food along the rails to be consistently inconsistent, and at times, even vile.
He saw this as his opportunity to re-enter the restaurant business.
Harvey proposed to Burlington’s management that a network of eating houses, where passengers could count on a good meal, would increase ridership. They said no.
He then approached the Santa Fe Railroad. They agreed to a trial, and Harvey’s first restaurant in Topeka, Kan., was a success in 1876.
On a handshake, Harvey began opening restaurants and hotels along the Santa Fe line. He provided the staff and the food system, and the railroad provided the food, supplies, and transportation. Harvey received all the profits.
More than 100,000 women signed up to be Harvey Girls in one of the 83 Harvey Houses that were placed about every 200 miles along the Santa Fe rail line or on one of 40 Santa Fe dining cars that served fresh food to railroad passengers both day and night.
Per the Santa Fe System Bulletin on July 1, 1927: “Over thousands of miles of steel rails, the Santa Fe-Harvey organization works night and day, to the end that Santa Fe patrons may have the pleasure of their journeys enhanced by delicious meals perfectly served.”
Waynoka’s Harvey House, which actually opened nine years after Harvey’s death, operated from 1910 and 1937 under the direction of his sons, catering to passengers on Santa Fe Railroad’s main rail line from Chicago to Los Angeles.
On the main floor, which led to the train platform, was the dining room where passengers disembarking the train could enter and immediately be fed after a long ride.
Bixler said it’s this efficiency of the Harvey House that was the main appeal for Santa Fe travelers:
- There was a telegraph or radio in the kitchen that would alert dining staff the train was 30 minutes out with the menu desires of passengers.
- A staff member would man a gong on the platform and ring it to indicate the train arrival was imminent.
- Food prep was begun when the train was in sight, so by the time the train pulled into the station and the hungry passengers disembarked, they were greeted, escorted, and served their meal by a Harvey Girl.
Taking to the air
The Harvey House earned a unique place in American aviation history when Col. Charles Lindbergh chose Waynoka for the location of an airport as a key stop in the short-lived Transcontinental Air Transport air-rail route between New York and Los Angeles.
Waynoka’s state-of-the-art airport had the third largest hangar in the United States at the time, Bixler said.
TAT service began in July 1929. The promised 48-hour journey by TAT brought passengers via Ford Tri-Motor airplanes from the east coast to Waynoka where they dined at its Harvey House, then rode by Santa Fe train through the night to Clovis where they had breakfast at the Clovis Harvey House, before continuing via air to the west coast.
However, after 18 months and a $2.7 million loss, TAT shut down. There were too many accidents and it was too expensive for the common man, Bixler said. In October 1930, TAT merged with Western Air Express to become TWA (Trans World Airlines), and the air-rail route through Waynoka was discontinued.
Among the other celebrities besides Lindbergh—who often created such a stir among the locals who wanted to see him that he would sometimes not even land his plane but would instead fly on by to the next stop—whom enjoyed the hospitality of Waynoka’s Harvey House were aviator Amelia Earhart, monster actor Lon Chaney, silent film star Greta Garbo, Oklahoma native and humorist Will Rogers, and Hollywood icon Mae West.
Carrying on the legacy
Following the closing of Waynoka’s Harvey House, the building was occupied by
Santa Fe’s Reading Room until 1986 and also functioned as the railroad’s depot from the early 1980s until the early 1990s, when the Santa Fe Railroad vacated the building and locked the doors.
Thankfully, Bixler said, in 1995, Santa Fe donated the Harvey House and the depot to the City of Waynoka who in turn deeded them to Waynoka Historical Society. Both buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places.
Restoration began with 80% of the funding coming from the Oklahoma Department of Transportation. Waynoka’s Harvey House transformation was completed in late 1999.
While much of the dining area on the first floor has changed over the years with different occupants, Bixler said, remnants of the marble lunch counter remain along with the original flooring in the second dining room.
Mid last month, The Station Restaurant opened for business in the old Harvey House dining space and began serving hungry patrons after the previous restaurant vacated five years ago at the start of the pandemic.
The hallway to Harvey Girls’ dorm rooms on the second floor is original, Bixler said. Waynoka Air and Rail Museum did move around some of the door room walls to accommodate museum exhibits, she said, but retained one of the dorm rooms as is for visitors to see how the Harvey Girls lived.
The museum received funding to upgrade during Oklahoma’s centennial celebration in 2007, allowing exhibits to be professionally designed and displayed in alignment with Oklahoma Historical Society standards.
Bixler, who is a 1966 graduate of Waynoka High School, assumed the role of curator in 2019 after the retirement of longtime curator/Waynoka Historical Society president Sandie Olson.
She credited Olson, who is now in a nursing facility, for being unequaled in her dedication and commitment to preserving Waynoka’s history, the Harvey House, and the depot for 35 years.
Waynoka Air and Rail Museum, 1383 S Cleveland, is open Saturdays from noon to 4 p.m. or by appointment only. Call (580) 614-1896. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for students.