Vici M-K-T Depot

The Vici M-K-T depot is eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places under Criteria A and C. Its significance lies in the areas of transportation and commerce under Criterion A, and architecture under Criterion C. The depot is reflective of the place in history that the railroad played in Vici - a town that owes its very existence to the steel rails of the "iron horse." The Wichita Falls & Northwestern (later Missouri-Kansas & Texas) railroad was the lifeblood of Vici, a town serving a large agricultural region.

Architecturally, the depot remains a rare, intact example of a wooden combination depot, representative of the standard designs available in the first decade of the 20th century.

Vici is a railroad town. It owes its present location and continued existence to the construction of the Wichita Falls and Northwestern Railroad. The depot constructed by this railroad, subsequently acquired by the Missouri Kansas & Texas railroad, stands as a reminder of Vici's importance as a shipping center for agricultural and mineral products. The depot is the embodiment of the town's lifeblood over a span of four decades, its connection to the outside world, a center for news.

Dewey County is situated in west central Oklahoma and is composed of the same 977 square miles that had been Dewey County, Oklahoma Territory. Dewey County was forged from a portion of the Cheyenne-Arapaho lands that opened for white settlement on April 19, 1892. Named after Admiral George Dewey, it has its county seat in Taloga. The South Canadian River snaking through it from east to west. Initial settlements in the county included Aledo, Butte, Camargo, Lenora, Raymond, Rhea, Riley and Taloga. The economy and the coming of the railroad changed the face of the county; towns disappeared and new towns grew. Today, the current towns in Dewey County are Camargo, Leedey, Lenora, Oakwood, Putnam, Seiling, Taloga and Vici.

The town of Vici had humble beginnings, but they were not located where Vici stands today. The town began as a chartered post office serving settlers of the area. Albert H. Vincent received a certificate on February 1, 1899, from President Theodore Roosevelt to create a post office about two and a half miles southeast of the current town's location. Vincent's settlement was called Ussery Flats. The name Vici, from the famous words of Julius Caesar, "Veni, Vedi, Vici" meaning "I came, I saw, I conquered," was suggested by the Government, so the town was renamed. Of course, the local pronunciation differs from Caesar's Latin; townsfolk pronounce it with long "i's.

By 1901, the town of Vici was on its second location, 3% of a mile southeast of the current town. The settlement included the Vici post office, along with the community's one-room school a hardware store, a hotel, a blacksmith shop and a weekly newspaper, the "Vici Visitor." A tornado in 1908 devastated the small community, but rebuilding began soon. Businesses, homes, and a new school were constructed.

As the fortunes of the town of Vici waxed and waned, an event was brewing far to the south that would settle its future. In Wichita Falls, Texas, J. A. Kemp and Frank Kell of the Wichita Fall Railroad Company were being wooed by the leaders of a number of western Oklahoma towns. In 1907, Kemp and Kell constructed a line from Wichita Falls across the Red River and into the Big pasture, terminating at Frederick. While Kemp and Kell had no plans to push further north with this line, dubbed the Wichita Falls & Northwestern, they were not adverse to listening to proposals. In 1909, they decided to continue the line through Altus, to Mangum and Elk City, opening up a swath of southwestern Oklahoma to the Fort Worth market. It was the promise of the rich cotton, wheat and broomcorn fields that lured the railroad. Even as the tracks were completed to Elk City in 1910, the decision was made to push further north, to Hammon in Custer County, on to Woodward, then into the Oklahoma panhandle to terminate at Forgan, a town platted by Kemp and Kell. In June, 1911, the board of directors authorized bonds to continue the line.

A common occurrence along the WF & NW lines into Oklahoma was the creation of "new" towns. As the railroad survey approached established settlements, the line might miss the existing settlement by a mile or so. Kemp and Kell would then survey and file a plat for a new town, near the old town. In most cases, such as in Hammon and Camargo, citizens would move to the "new" town, dragging along their homes and business buildings along with the town name. Such was the case with Vici.

In the three years since the 1908 tornado had wiped out the village of Vici, buildings were rebuilt. These buildings were moved over a mile to the new townsite as the railroad construction gangs moved ever closer to the newly-platted town. Two construction crews were working on the railroad - one working north from Hammon and one working south from Woodward. It was the Woodward gang that reached the Vici area first.

Interestingly, the construction gang on the Woodward to the South Canadian River section was composed of Black workers from east Texas. The workers were segregated from the locals as the crew moved south. The line moving north from Hammon and the line moving south from Woodward met between Camargo and Vici in April, 1912. The celebration was tempered by the news of the Titanic's sinking on April 15. While the towns along the line celebrated the coming of the railroad as it entered each town, the official opening occurred on May 9, 1912, when a passenger train from Wichita Falls, Texas entered Woodward, Oklahoma.

The effect of this railroad on the local economies of each town and on the overall economy of the region cannot be overestimated. Newspaper accounts touted the rich agricultural fields that could soon convey their yields more efficiently to the market. The north/south running WF & NW line connected to four different east/west lines, allowing shipping not only to Wichita Falls but also to Oklahoma City. The Daily Oklahoman touted in a November 27, 1911 article the benefits of the line once opened. Land values were on the rise and the easy access to transportation attracted agriculturalists from other regions. American Express offices were ready to set up in each new station along the line, according to the article.

How did the coming of the WF & NW affect the locals? An article in the Daily Oklahoman, published March 22, 1912, quoted a Camargo businessman: "I...stocked my store with goods bought at Kansas City and Wichita. What I could buy in Wichita I freighted in from Woodward at 40 cents per hundred, at a material advantage over Oklahoma City. With the rail connection through Elk City and Hammon, I will have a better rate from Oklahoma City than from Wichita." The merchant, Mr. Secrest, later remarked on conditions in Dewey County prior to the construction of the railroad: "Heretofore, Taloga, the county seat of Dewey County, has had to freight everything in from Woodward, fifty miles north, or Orient, about half that distance. The roads in both directions are very bad. With the railroad built into Camargo, the haul to Taloga will be reduced to twenty-three miles and the roads are much better."
In Vici, the story was much the same. Regional trade relied on wagons going overland on poor roads.

Direct access to Woodward or to Elk City, with their connections to other trunk line railroads, opened up a new market for goods and travelers going in both directions. The WF & NW railroad pushed into Vici in late March 1912. A month later, the town was connected to the state capital. Noted an article in the Daily Oklahoman on March 23, 1912, the effects of the railroad went both ways: "Iron rails in the western part of this state have connected this city with a section that has not been accessible to the jobbers of Oklahoma City. The rails of the Wichita Falls & Northwestern road cross the Rock Island at Elk City and make it possible for the merchants of Oklahoma City to reach many new customers... And from the new territory now available will come trainloads of grain and livestock to this market.

While the road was built from Wichita Falls, Texas, into a fertile part of Oklahoma for the purpose of securing business for Texas cities, there is enough business for all and Oklahoma City will get its proper share." Whether connected to Wichita Falls, Texas, or the state capital, Vici now had an outlet to large markets, adding to its growth potential. From a village of fewer than 100 persons by 1930, there were 640 residents of the town.

The WF & NW had a long-time relationship with the MK&T railroad (Missouri Kansas & Texas). The MK&T leases trackage near Wichita Falls and ran passenger service from there to Fort Worth. The first passenger train on the newly completed WF & NW line to Woodward was pulled by a leased MK&T locomotive.

In 1910, MK&T began to make overtures to Kemp and Kell for the acquisition of the WF & NW line, as well as their other Wichita Falls lines. The MK&T, commonly called the Katy, did acquire the capital stock of the WF & NW by the end of 1911, but the Wichita Falls Lines still remained as their own corporate entities. Convoluted corporate laws in Texas prevented MK&T from assuming direct control over the Wichita Falls lines, but it did gain effective control by 1914. The operations of the lines, including those in Oklahoma, were included in MK&T's annual reports, although they were still technically owned by the WF & NW. The Katy, in purchasing the WF & NW and other railroads, overextended itself and went into receivership in 1915. Years of wrangling between the courts, the stock and bondholders, the receivers, and the MK&T were lessened by President Woodrow Wilson's federalization of the country's railroads in December 1917. All during this time, the WF & NW branch of the Katy lines proved to be the most valuable. A complete reorganization of MK&T, which included selling off some of the smaller branch lines, occurred in 1922/1923. The MK&T emerged as the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad or M-K-T. The WF & NW bond owners were issued new bonds with M-K-T being the corporate owner. Wichita Falls and Northwestern ceased to exist as corporate entities.

The railroad is responsible for the location and continued life of the town of Vici. Formerly an isolated hamlet, little more than a cluster of buildings along a rough trail, the town grew steadily after the coming of the railroad and the decision to locate a depot there. Towns without rail lines died; Cestos, a bustling town east of Vici, withered and died when the WF & NW passed well to its west. Town on the rail lines, but without depots suffered; Trail, located south of the river, did not get a permanent depot, only a small shed for freight storage. It withered away, attracting no new business concerns and no new residents.