Historical Marker Program

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Babbs Switch Fire

Kiowa County
Location: in Hobart Cemetery
Topics: Education; Government; Social/Cultural

On Christmas Eve in 1924, thirty-six men, women, and children died in a fire that raged through the country school during a Christmas program. Candles ignited a Christmas tree and spread to new paint on the walls. The doors were built to open inward, and when people crowded them to escape, they were trampled. The fire resulted in new laws that required school exit doors to open outward.

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CCC-Quartz Mountain State Park

Kiowa County
Location: in Quartz Mountain State Park
Topics: Environmental/Cultural Ecology; Government; Natural Resources; Recreational/Service; Social/Cultural

Members of Company 2810 of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built the state park from 1937 to 1939. Approximately 150 young men lived in tents and were paid $30 per month, of which $25 was sent to their homes. CCC members built trails, roads, shelters, picnic tables, and cabins, and landscaped the park.

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Chief Bugler’s Grave

Kiowa County
Location: in Quartz Mountain State Park
Material: Granite
Topics: Folklife; Military; Social/Cultural

On March 5, 1869, William Gruber, the popular young bugler of the 19th Kansas Cavalry, was killed in a hunting accident while his regiment was in bivouac in the area. He was buried at dawn with the honors of war.

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Consolidated Dist. No. 8

Kiowa County
Material: Granite
Topics: Education; Settlement Patterns

Commemorating the dedication, foresight, and skill of teachers, administrators, and early residents who built these schools and the Con 8 community.

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Custer’s Rendezvous

Kiowa County
Location: in Quartz Mountain State Park
Material: Granite
Topics: American Indians; Government; Military; Territorial Period, 1861–1907; Transportation

On March 5, 1869, General George Armstrong Custer and two cavalry regiments met a large supply train dispatched from Camp Supply by General Philip H. Sheridan. Three days earlier, Custer and his troops had departed Medicine Creek Camp, later Fort Sill, on an expedition against Plains Indians.

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Fairview School House

Kiowa County
Location: at 600 South Dunn Street, Roosevelt
Sponsor(s): Brook Roberts
Topics: Education; Territorial Period, 1861–1907

The Fairview School House was one of the largest pioneer schools in Kiowa County. Constructed in 1903, it was a one-room school until 1916 when another room was added. It was located on R. W. and Alice Henderson's land in the northwest corner of Section 17 Township 4 Range 16. The school was transferred to Roosevelt School property in town when the prairie schools consolidated to Roosevelt High School.

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Gold Belle Mine

Kiowa County
Location: in Great Plains State Park
Topics: Early Statehood, 1907–1941; Industry/Business; Mining; Natural Resources

The Gold Belle (or Bell) was one of several gold-mining shafts in the Wichita Mountains during a flurry of prospecting activity in the early twentieth century. The Gold Belle shaft was capitalized for $500,000 in 1903 but failed to produce paying ore. It was abandoned by 1914.

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Lugert

Kiowa County
Location: on the west side of Hwy 44 near the Lugert grain elevator
Sponsor(s): Terri Stern
Topics: Early Statehood, 1907–1941; Ethnic Diversity; Government; Industrial Period, 1892–1941; Land Openings; Retail; Territorial Period, 1861–1907; Water

Austrian immigrant Frank Lugert (1868–1958) founded the town of Lugert when the Kiowa-Comanche-Apache Reservation opened for settlement in 1901. Mr. Lugert ran the post office, train depot, and a general store. The town thrived until 1912 when a tornado destroyed it. In 1947 the dam was completed, covering the townsite.

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Rainey Mountain Boarding School

Kiowa County
Location: south of Gotebo Hwy 54 near Rainy Mountain
Topics: American Indians; Education