Kingfisher was a result of the April 22, 1889 Land Run which allowed settlers to claim parcels of land in the unassigned lands of the Indian Territory. The rules of the Land Run limited non-Indian settlements to 130 hectares (320 acres), so two adjoining settlements were founded, Kingfisher City to the north and Lisbon to the south. The two settlements merged in 1890 and adopted the name Kingfisher. It is the county seat of Kingfisher County and has a population of under 5,000.
West Wing, Chisholm Trail Museum
The west wing of the museum focusses on everyday life in the days of the Chisholm Trail, including wagons for carrying goods and people and even barbed wire.
Interior of Dalton Cabin, Chisholm Trail Museum
Jesse Chisholm was a half-Cherokee, half-Scottish descent trader from Tennessee. He moved to the Indian Territory with his mother when the Cherokee were relocating voluntarily from the south. He established a trading post in the territory. The Civil War brought his trading activities to a halt but after the War he moved to near present day Wichita in Kansas to recommence trading with the Indian Territory. He improved trails into the Territory so that they could take the heavy wagons needed to transport his goods between trading posts. Chisholm died in 1868 but after his death the route that he had established was used to drive cattle from Texas to the railheads in Abilene, Kansas. It was named the Chisholm Trail after the man who created it. The trial ran though the site where Kingfisher was later founded, and the Chisholm Trail Museum tells the story of the trial and the later development of Kingfisher. Part of the museum is a Pioneer Village of historic local buildings relocated to the museum. The Dalton Cabin was the home of Adaline Dalton which originally stood in the Blackjacks south east of Dover.
Kingfisher
Governor A J Seay Mansion
Guthrie was the state capital, Oklahoma City is the capital and Kingfisher wanted to be the capital. Abraham Jefferson Seay was a lawyer born in Virginia who served as a Colonel in the Union Army during the Civil War. After the Civil war he became a judge in Missouri. When the Oklahoma Territory was opened to settlers, the US government appointed Seay to serve as an Associate Justice in the Supreme Court of the territory. In 1891 Seay became Governor of the Territory but he was replaced after only 16 months in office. Seay dreamed that Kingfisher would replace Guthrie as the state capital and he built a mansion called Horizon Hill there in 1892. He lived there after his governorship came to an end until ill health forced him to move to California. The Seay Mansion is now part of the Chisholm Trail Museum. Click Tab 2 to see one of the bedrooms of the mansion.
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© Mike Elsden 1981 - 2025
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