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Laverne Chamber of Commerce

108 West Jane Jayroe Boulevard
580-921-3612

  Beginning March 30, 1889 in a one-room sod house, a Post Office, Laverne, served the pioneer settlers of the lush green valley just south of the Beaver River and 6 miles east of the 100th meridian.  A new building was soon built on the Nesbiti place and the Post Office moved with George Frisbee as postmaster.  This location is part of the old Park Carlisle where Lloyd Carlisle now lives.

It is said that the Post Office was named Laverne by a daughter of Jesse Sinclair, a homesteader.  A more romantic version is that a dying cowboy requested it be named Laverne for his girl friend.

An enterprising settler pitched a tent, stocked it with groceries and supplies and thus began the town.  Frank Kell bought land from John Mollman in 1911, plotted the ground and sold lots for the present town site.  When the Wichita Falls and Northwester Railroad (branch of the M-K&T) was laid through the site in the spring of 1912, the growth of the town was assured.  By June 1912 there were 44 businesses, including the Laverne Leader, Christian and Presbyterian churches, and the Laverne State and Speermore Banks.  The population of 450 in 1913 increased approximately 1,000 by 1930.

Located in the heart of Northwester Oklahoma's agricultural and cattle industry, the oil boom of the 1950's gave Laverne the title of "Oil Capital of Northwest Oklahoma" with some of the strongest wells in the state included in the Laverne-Mocane discovery.  During this era the population grew to almost the hoped goal of 2,000.  The first hotel,  built in 1912, The Fox, now houses the Community Museum where displayed are Indian artifacts found in Harper County, furnished rooms depicting the life of early homesteaders and one room honors Jane Jayroe, Miss America of 1967.