Mangum History

Front of the Armory Building

In the extreme southwest corner of Oklahoma, "The Empire of Greer" has a history distinctively its own. Greer County, before statehood contained 1,571,575 acres and was larger than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware. It consisted of the present counties of Greer, Jackson, Harmon and the southern half of Beckham, It was bounded on the south by the Red River, on the east and north by the North Fork of the Red River and on the west by the 100th Meridian.

First Called "Tin City" by the cowboys, because of the tin cans that were unrolled and nailed over the strips of planking, Mangum was named for Captain A.S. Mangum, who participated in the Battle of San Jacinto in Texas.

Hall of Fame Pioneer Sign

Captain Mangum was given a veteran’s certificate which gave him land in Greer County for his services. The western cattle trail was established across the eastern end of Greer County about 1876. Thundering herds of cattle were driven over the trail on the way to the Kansas shipping points. According to a record kept by Corwin Doan -- who operated a store at Doan’s Crossing on the south bank of the Red River – seven million cattle and four million horses were driven on the trail during the years it was used.