Cunningham, Oklahoma
October 30, 2022
El Reno is a city in and county seat of Canadian County, Oklahoma, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 16,989, marking a change of 1.55% from 16,729, recorded in the 2010 census. The city was begun shortly after the 1889 land rush and named for the nearby Fort Reno.[4] It is located in Central Oklahoma, about 25 miles west of downtown Oklahoma City.
History
The land of Canadian County belonged to the historic Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes at the time of European encounter. In 1874, the United States established a fort to supervise the area and General Philip Sheridan took command. He named it Fort Reno in honor of his friend, Gen. Jesse L. Reno, who was killed in the American Civil War.
After the 1889 landrun, there were three entities the local postmaster had to keep separate - Fort Reno, Reno City, and the community township or Village of (El) Reno. The Village of El Reno originated shortly after the 1889 land run, with the post office coming into being in June of that year.
Although "el reno" means "the reindeer" in Spanish, the town was actually named, in part, after nearby Fort Reno. Reindeer are not native to Oklahoma.
The town's name was taken from the nearby military post of Fort Reno, with the "el" (meaning "the" in spanish) later added by the local postmaster to help differentiate the community from the also newly established Reno City.
Reno City was located on the north-side of the Canadian River five miles northeast of community of El Reno. The community of El Reno was located on the south-side of the Canadian river.
The original village townsite was platted by the Oklahoma Homestead and Town Company on 120 acres of the homestead of John Foreman. In 1890, Foreman's 120 acres along with 80 acres of Thomas Jensen's, were incorporated into the Village of El Reno.
After the railroad company announced their rail lines were going to run on the south side of the Canadian river, Reno City relocated to the township of El Reno. The original Reno City site north of the river was abandoned. What remained and continues to this day is Fort Reno and the city of El Reno.
El Reno is located on the 98th meridian west, about 25 miles west of Oklahoma City. The eastern side of the meridian was opened to non-Indian settlement in the Land Rush of 1889. The western side was opened in 1892, when the federal government also made some Cheyenne and Arapaho lands available for settlement by non-Native Americans. The town was subsequently selected as the land district office for the 1901 land lottery drawings.
In 1932, the United States Southwestern Reformatory was constructed about 2 miles west of El Reno. The federal reformatory housed male adult federal prisoners and was later restricted to house young adult male prisoners, aged 18 to 26. In the mid-1970s it was renamed by the United States Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons, as the Federal Correctional Institution, El Reno (FCI El Reno). Prisoner age limits were lifted and men of all ages have been incarcerated here ever since. As medium-security prison, it has become the fifth-largest federal prison in the U.S. The prison is still one of the largest employers in El Reno.[4] In 2015 President Barack Obama visited the prison, the first time a sitting president has visited any federal prison.
During World War II, Fort Reno, about 5 mi (8.0 km) northwest of El Reno, was the site of a prisoner of war camp for Germans and Italians. The POW cemetery has been preserved and has stones bearing the names of German and Italian prisoners who died there.
Following World War II, the US Army determined it did not need the fort. In 1948 the fort was transferred to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, for use as a research laboratory.[4] The laboratory studies environmentally sustainable forage and livestock production, contributing to preservation of the Great Plains of North America.
At one time, railroads contributed strongly to the city economy. A terminal and repair facility for the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (CRI&P or "Rock Island"), which employed a large number of people, was based here. Some 750 of the company's 970 employees in the state worked in El Reno. Due to changes taking place throughout the railroad industry, the CRI&P went bankrupt in 1979. It abandoned the depot and railyards in 1980. The railyards are still vacant.
The former train depot and some other buildings were acquired by the Canadian County Historical Society for adaptive use as part of a museum complex. The 1954 film noir Human Desire includes locomotive and yard scenes filmed in the El Reno rail yards.
El Reno is a Main Street America community. The Oklahoma Main Street Program is a statewide program, part of a national network affiliated with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. It emphasizes downtown revitalization related to public-private partnerships, with investment in public spaces and design, and overall management of retail mix. The El Reno started its Main Street program in 1988; it was one of four cities in 2006 selected nationally to win the annual Great American Main Street Award. El Reno has used economic development, historic preservation, and creative design to enhance the Rock District of downtown. Its high standards are reflected in having been accredited annually since 2016.
Since 1988 El Reno holds an annual Fried Onion Burger Day Festival in downtown the first Saturday in May.[9] This event encourages the celebration of art, music, culture, food and community. Visitors can observe the cooking of the world's largest fried onion hamburger, weighing over 850 lb (390 kg). The giant burger contains meat, fried onions, sliced pickles, and mustard - all held between two giant buns. Festival goers can get a piece of the monstrosity. Volunteers divide the giant burger into individual-sized portions, and other volunteers deliver the free portions to anyone in the crowd wanting a piece. The fried onion burger dates to the Great Depression, when households added onions to ground hamburger mix to stretch out the meat supply.
In 2001, El Reno was the first city in Oklahoma to re-establish streetcar service in the downtown area: the Heritage Express Trolley. Such service had not been available since 1947, and it was the only operating trolley line in the state that year. Another line has since been started in Oklahoma City. The Heritage Express was installed with aid of a federal transportation grant and as part of a complex project also to improve the downtown's streets and drainage system.
On June 15, 2015, Sid's Diner was featured on the Food Network series Top 5 Restaurants, with their fried-onion burger being highlighted. Sid's Diner has also been featured on the Travel Channel series Man v. Food.
21st century tornadoes
On May 24, 2011, an EF5 tornado struck parts of northwestern El Reno. The tornado killed a total of 9 people and injured 181 others, and had winds measured at up to 295 mph[10] by mobile doppler radar near Interstate 40.
Two years later, on May 31, 2013, El Reno was hit by a multiple-vortex tornado. The tornado set a record with a width of 2.6 miles. The Weather Channel's Mike Bettes was hit by this storm, but survived it.
Storm chaser Tim Samaras, his son Paul, and his TWISTEX colleague Carl Young died in the storm near the Regional Airport. Paul Samaras and Young were pulled from their Chevrolet Cobalt by the tornado's subvortex. Tim Samaras was found still buckled in the passenger's seat of the car, next to where Young had been driving.
Local amateur chaser Richard Henderson died in that same area. Before being struck, Henderson took a picture of the tornado from his mobile phone and sent it to a friend.
Dan Robinson of St. Louis, Missouri survived the tornado with few injuries. He was a few hundred meters ahead of the TWISTEX crew.
An EF3 tornado struck southern parts of El Reno on May 25, 2019. Touching down at 10:32 pm, the tornado damaged a service station before moving east-northeastward and crossing Interstate 40. It damaged billboards before striking a motel and a mobile home park at U.S. Highway 81, both of which suffered significant damage. One part of the motel had most of its second-floor walls destroyed, and several mobile homes were destroyed, killing two people and injuring many others. East of Highway 81, the tornado damaged an automobile service building and a house on Route 66. The tornado caused tree damage before dissipating on Alfadale Road north of Route 66. The tornado had a maximum estimated width of 75 yards and injured 19 people.
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