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August 11: Henry Fonda
CHARLES FRANCIS COLCORD
Howdy folks, it’s the third week of August 2025 and welcome to This Week in The West.
I’m Seth Spillman, broadcasting from the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.
On this podcast, we share stories of the people and events that shaped the history, art and culture of the American West—and those still shaping it today.
The mosquitoes were thick in the swamp outside the Colcord plantation in 1849. Ten-year-old Charley, the young son of the owners, had been bitten and was sick with malaria.
His parents wanted to send him somewhere he could recover, so they packed up the young boy and took him to a ranch in Texas to live with a family friend.
From that ranch, the boy’s life would wind through an extraordinary path, from cattle trails to the Oklahoma land run to time in law enforcement, culminating with a skyscraper in his hometown that still bears his name.
Charles Francis Colcord, a larger-than-life figure in Oklahoma and Western history, was born this week, August 18, 1859.
Colcord recovered from his childhood bout of malaria and, at age 16, ran away from home to become a cowboy. He rode a cattle trail in 1875 to Baxter Springs, Kansas, but eventually returned to help his father’s booming cattle business. However, a drought a decade later decimated the herd, and the Colcord family had to seek ways to revive their fortunes elsewhere.
In 1889, Colcord had an idea of how to do that: the opening of land in the former Indian Territory.
While some stories claim Colcord made claim No. 1 in Oklahoma City, other sources have him claiming land first in Hennessey, Oklahoma, before selling that in exchange for land in Oklahoma City.
Nevertheless, Colcord landed in Oklahoma City, and as the city organized itself, he was tapped to become the first chief of police. In 1890, when Oklahoma County was formed, he became the sheriff.
Those early days in frontier Oklahoma City had a lawless reputation. Colcord spent his time working with US Marshall Bill Tilghman to round up gangs and outlaws. Colcord claimed some more land during the Cherokee Strip run in 1893 and built a home in Perry, Oklahoma, while serving as a Deputy US Marshal there.
But Oklahoma City drew him back, and once Colcord returned in 1898, his influence on the city became unstoppable.
Charley got into the businesses of banking, land development and oil exploration.
In 1905, while on a hunting trip with friends and business partners, Robert Galbreath and Frank Chesley, Colcord’s two Kentucky wolfhounds chased a wolf and vanished.
The search for the dogs led the men to a farm owned by a Creek Indian named Ida Glenn. While looking for the dogs with Galbreath and Chesley, Chesley came across a spot where oil was seeping from rocks.
Together with John O. Mitchell, the group secured the drilling rights to the land. On November 22, 1905, they struck oil, marking the discovery of the Glenn Pool oil field, which became one of the largest known oil fields in the world.
In Oklahoma City, Colcord founded the Commercial National Bank of Oklahoma City. He also served as vice president of the State National Bank, president of the Oklahoma City Building & Loan Association, and director of the Oklahoma State Fair Association.
He was also the longtime president of the Oklahoma Historical Society.
In 1909, Colcord secured his legacy in the Oklahoma City skyline by literally creating it. He developed the city’s first skyscraper, the 14-story Colcord Building at the corner of Robinson and Sheridan. Completed in 1910, the building was designed with the latest safety features brought about by the great San Francisco earthquake a few years prior.
The building was the tallest in Oklahoma City until 1923. These days, following a renovation in the mid-2000s, it is a luxury hotel.
In the 1920s, Colcord built a 2,000-acre ranch in southern Delaware County. By 1930, the newly-christened town of “Colcord, Oklahoma” had sprung up around it.
On that ranch in 1934, Charley died. His body lay in state in the rotunda of the Oklahoma Historical Society building. Charley Colcord was 75.
And with that, we’ve reached the top floor on another episode of “This Week in The West.”
Our show is produced by Chase Spivey and written by Mike Koehler
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We leave you today with the words of Oklahoma historian Rex Harlow: “For richness of experience and active participation in the exciting pioneer days of the Southwest…and the unflinching allegiance to duty, constantly fraught with danger, Colcord’s life challenges the interest and admiration of every true man and woman in this pioneer nation.”
Much obliged for listening, and remember, come Find Your West at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
