This Oklahoma City area lake boasts more than 100 years of being a peaceful retreat
One hundred years ago, the dam was nearly complete. A future of fishing, swimming and outdoor enjoyment was beginning.
The Oklahoman newspaper on Jan. 20, 1924 provided this description:
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Far from the madding crowds … lies Lake Aluma Chulosa — the Lake of Peaceful Retreat.
Far from the clang of a street car, the siren of a fire wagon, the horn of an automobile or the raucous cry of a newsboy, is one of Oklahoma County's beauty spots in the making.
But it is not too far for tired business men to run out after work for a dip and quiet night. Just a trifle more than eight miles northeast of Main and Broadway where restless crowds surge and shuffle, it shines in the sun and smiles serenely into the sunlit sky.
The name of the lake was taken from the Choctaw. From the mouths of Indians, it was taken to designate a place were tired business men could spend the night or week-end and gratify the "call of the wild."
Possibly it took the Indian who saw the beauty of the rolling prairie dotted with buffalo, felt the witchery of Indian summer, and transferred to skin the beauty of the doe and fawn drinking from a streamlet in a sun-washed forest, to originate an expression like "Peaceful Retreat."
John Shirk, a busy city attorney, is blamed for the idea. More than a year ago he sent out a scout to find the place within a radius of twenty-five miles of Oklahoma City which would best adapt itself to a natural park, with a large lake, where summer bungalows could be built in a setting of natural beauty. He chose a spot two and a half miles east of the Edmond road on Sixty-third street where Grant creek winds down between the low hills to meet Deep Fork. Then Shirk and others got busy. The Aluma Chulosa Preserve association was formed and 336 acres of land purchased.
Lake Aluma is still a peaceful retreat. It was incorporated as a town in 1952. The 2020 U.S. Census lists a population of 87.
If you would like to contact Mary Phillips about The Archivist, email her at gapnmary@gmail.com
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Lake Aluma offers a retreat close to downtown Oklahoma City
