Home |  PublicationsEncyclopedia |  Lambert

The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

LAMBERT.

Located in west-central Alfalfa County, Lambert lies on County Road E0230, three and one-half miles west of U.S. Highway 64, which is also State Highway 8/58. A wheat-growing region, this area was originally part of the Cherokee Outlet and after 1893 was in Woods County and from 1907 in Alfalfa County. The town lies about seven miles southwest of Cherokee, the county seat.

The community developed on or near land owned by Ambrose Lambert, one of three brothers who had made the Cherokee Outlet Opening land run of 1893. He had later obtained a quarter section in this part of Woods County. The settlement that came to be called after him moved about a mile west to be nearer the Choctaw Northern Railroad's line. In late summer 1901 the Choctaw (later the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway) constructed its tracks north from Aline through "old" Augusta to "new" Lambert. To the east lay a community called Yewed, through which the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway (later the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway) built a line in mid-March 1903. Incorporated in 1910, Lambert lay between the two railroads and prospered, but Yewed declined.

In 1909 Lambert sheltered 127 inhabitants and had four churches, a hotel, a bank, an elevator, and two grain buyers. A half-dozen stores served residents and rural dwellers. The Farmers' Bank had the distinction of having been robbed in 1904 and again in 1919. The population peaked in 1920 at 130, at which time the community supported a dozen businesses, and farmers accessed an elevator and a flour mill.

Lambert's population drastically declined after World War II. In 1950, 55 people lived there but by 1960, only 21. The Rock Island abandoned its line west of Lambert, but the Santa Fe line, sold to the Texas and Oklahoma Railroad in 1991, remained in service. The 1990 population of 11 dropped to 9 at the end of the twentieth century and to 6 in 2010. The April 2020 census reported 6. Novelist and University of Oklahoma sports publicity director Harold Keith hailed from Lambert.

Dianna Everett

Browse By Topic

Urban Development

Explore

Place
Town

Learn More

"Lambert," Vertical File, Research Division, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City.

Oklahoma State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1909–1910 (Detroit, Mich.: R. L. Polk and Co., 1910).

Our Alfalfa County Heritage: 1893–1976 (N.p.: Alfalfa County Historical Society, 1976).

United States Census, 1900, Woods County, Oklahoma Territory.

Citation

The following (as per The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition) is the preferred citation for articles:
Dianna Everett, “Lambert,” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=LA012.

Published January 15, 2010
Last updated March 25, 2024

Copyright and Terms of Use

No part of this site may be construed as in the public domain.

Copyright to all articles and other content in the online and print versions of The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History is held by the Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS). This includes individual articles (copyright to OHS by author assignment) and corporately (as a complete body of work), including web design, graphics, searching functions, and listing/browsing methods. Copyright to all of these materials is protected under United States and International law.

Users agree not to download, copy, modify, sell, lease, rent, reprint, or otherwise distribute these materials, or to link to these materials on another web site, without authorization of the Oklahoma Historical Society. Individual users must determine if their use of the Materials falls under United States copyright law's "Fair Use" guidelines and does not infringe on the proprietary rights of the Oklahoma Historical Society as the legal copyright holder of The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and part or in whole.