Ghost Towns Underwater: Oklahoma’s Lost Communities

Oklahoma’s landscape is dotted with ghostly echoes. Not just abandoned oil boomtowns and dusty one-stoplight bottlenecks, but whole communities swallowed by our thirst for reservoirs. Built to put people back to work, to provide power, irrigation, and most importantly, to control the river flooding across the Sooner State.

Towns like Uncas, Washunga, Kaw City, Lugert, Sardis, Finchtown, and North Fork Town that quite literally vanished beneath man-made lakes, leaving only stories, memories, and the occasional fragment of pavement to hint at what was once.

Let's roll through the most notable lost Oklahoma towns.

Uncas, Kaw, and Washunga: The Kaw Lake Towns

Uncas - It was a tiny farming community established around 1886 near Kaw City that never grew beyond a few hundred people. In 1969, the completion of Kaw Lake forced its evacuation. Oddly enough, building foundations and even forgotten farm tools are still down there. You can see it on occasion when the lake level drops low enough.

Washunga - Named for a revered Kaw tribal leader (it means “bird”), established in 1902 at the Kaw Agency, which was the heart of tribal administration. It grew quickly along the banks of the Arkansas River with stores, service stations, and even a jail. But by the 1950s, the town had passed its prime. Before the townsite was flooded by Kaw Lake, the agency building and cemetery were relocated, though erosion still occasionally exposes remnants of the old Washunga Cemetery. Which is a little unsettling when you think about it.

Former Washunga residents still recall having to watch bulldozers roll through their neighborhoods before the waters came. One described it as ‘a funeral without a casket.'

Likewise, Kaw City’s original location was inundated by the same lake, but they found a different way to live on. The depot and other structures were physically moved up a hill to create the “new” Kaw City.

Lugert: Sidewalks Beneath the Lake

Lugert - This might be Oklahoma's most famous lost city. It was once at the base of the Quartz Mountains, founded in 1901 by a local merchant named Frank Lugert.

A tornado swept through in 1912 and leveled almost every building, though the general store survived. The damming of the North Fork of the Red River in the 1940s took what was left of the town, but after the cotton season, when the water is super low, the old sidewalks, foundations, and an old cellar can be found. In dry years, it’s worth the trip to see it. Where else can you stroll down a sidewalk that’s been underwater for decades?

Sardis and Finchtown: Forgotten Fast

Sardis was another casualty of dam-building when Sardis Lake was formed around 1980. The town was abandoned before the lake filled, so it usually goes without a mention of what it was.

The practically unknown town of Finchtown was quickly forgotten when the new Lake Texoma opened.

North Fork Town: Crossroads Lost

North Fork Town sat at the intersection of a pretty famous crossroads. One road went to California, the other straight to Texas. Founded by Creek people and serving as a landmark for years in The Territory, its fate was sealed when Lake Eufaula was constructed.

The old town lies underwater now, though its legacy lives on in stories of Belle Starr, whose schoolhouse and burial site are still downstream.

Ironically, what buried these towns also created new tourist playgrounds. Sardis Lake now draws fishermen from across the region, and Lake Texoma is one of Oklahoma’s busiest boating destinations.

Progress giveth and progress taketh away.

Why Oklahoma Built These Reservoirs

These Oklahoma towns weren't lost for nothing. It all led to progress. While the reservoirs provide irrigation and hydroelectric power to Oklahoma, it's the flood control that the state has forgotten about. Prior to damming up rivers, Oklahoma was an occasional wet, flooded, hot mess. It still happens now and then, but far less than before.