The population of Skedee is about 50. The town's area is .13 square miles. Coming from both the south and the west, you'll be able to spot the main intersection in town by the 30 foot tall statue that sits smack dab in the middle. It shows Chief Baconrind and Col. E. Walters shaking hands. An abandoned building at the southwest corner was recently in the news, as it was given as a gift to a woman in Pawnee, and she is welcoming suggestions of what to do with the old building. She runs the Forgotten Oklahoma facebook group.
From the pocketsights website: (
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Information
Skedee is a town in Pawnee County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 51 at the 2010 census, a 50 percent decline from 102 at the 2000 census.
History
Skedee was known as "Lemert", a name which referred to the local landowners, the Lemert family. In 1902, when the post office opened, the postal department requested that the town name be changed as it was too similar to another Oklahoman town. As a result, the town was renamed "Skedee", after the Skidi band of the Pawnee tribe.
In 1900-1904, the Eastern Oklahoma Railway (later the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway) built a railway line running from Newkirk to Pauls Valley passing through Skedee. When the railroad bypassed Osage City (located five miles northeast of Skedee), several buildings and home were relocated to Skedee. Steam engines stopped at Crystal Creek for water. A cotton gin and a grain elevator were also built.
Agricultural pursuits have been the mainstay of Skedee’s economy. Local farmers raised livestock, and cotton was their principal money crop. By 1909 settlers had established four churches, a public school, and a bank. A feed mill, a grain elevator, and a cotton gin supported the rural community. In the 1940s and 1950s a gasoline station, a cotton, grain, and produce company, and flour and feed company served residents.
The rail line was destroyed by flooding in 1957. The Skedee post office closed in 1963.
Point of interest
A 1926 statue of Osage Chief Bacon Rind and Colonel Ellsworth Walters (1866/7-1946), a Skedee resident who was an oil lease auctioneer for the Osage Nation in the 1920s, stands in the main intersection of the town.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 0.1 square miles (0.26 km2), all of it land.
From wikipedia:
Skedee is a town in Pawnee County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 51 at the 2010 census, a 50 percent decline from the figure of 102 recorded in 2000.
Skedee was known as "Lemert", a name which referred to the local landowners, the Lemert family. In 1902, when the post office opened, the town was renamed "Skedee", after the Skidi Pawnee.
In 1900–1904, the Eastern Oklahoma Railway built a railway line through Skedee. Steam engines stopped at Crystal Creek for water. A cotton gin and a grain elevator were also built.
The rail line was destroyed by flooding in 1957. The Skedee post office closed in 1963.
In the 21st Century, Skedee has become a commuter town, with employed residents commuting to work in Stillwater and Pawnee