Burneyville is a small community located in Love County, Oklahoma

Love County, Oklahoma

Love County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of 2000, the population is 8,831. Its county seat is Marietta.Love County is part of the Ardmore, Oklahoma, Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:According to the U.S...

. The post office was established May 5, 1879. It was named for David C. Burney, father of Benjamin Crooks Burney. Benjamin Crooks Burney was Governor of the Chickasaw Nation

Chickasaw Nation

The Chickasaw Nation is a federally recognized Native American nation, located in Oklahoma. They are one of the members of the Five Civilized Tribes. The Five Civilized Tribes were differentiated from other Indian reservations in that they had semi-autonomous constitutional governments and...

 from 1878 through 1880.

Burneyville is located on State Highway 96

State Highway 96 (Oklahoma)

State Highway 96 is a short, four-mile highway in Love Co., Oklahoma. It runs south from State Highway 32 to Burneyville, curves west and turns into Burneyville Road. It has no lettered spur routes.-Route description:...

 and on the north bank of the Red River.

As of 2007, the 73430 Zip Code for the Burneyville, Oklahoma post office served a population of 1,029.

History

Burneyville and Love County were named for prominent Chickasaw Indians who settled in the area in the early 1840s as part of the Federal removal of the tribe from northern Mississippi

Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...

 to Indian Territory

Indian Territory

The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...

.

David C. Burney and his wife, Lucy James Burney, were prominent Chickasaw Indians who relocated to what was then Pickens County, Indian Territory, from northern Mississippi and established a farm on the site of the future town. The émigrés traveled to Indian Territory by steamboat up the Red River. They paused at Shreveport, Louisiana

Shreveport, Louisiana

Shreveport is the third largest city in Louisiana. It is the principal city of the fourth largest metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana and is the 109th-largest city in the United States....

, on January 15, 1844, for the birth of a son. The family named him for the boat's captain, Benjamin Crooks.

Though the parents did not live to see it happen, both that son, Benjamin Crooks Burney, and a future son-in-law, Benjamin F. Overton, would be elected governors of the Chickasaw Nation in the late 1870s and early 1880s. The mother, Lucy, died in 1845, and the father, David, died shortly after the Civil War.

Prior to his death, the Chickasaw Nation honored David C. Burney in the naming of a girls' school. The Burney Academy opened in 1859. A post office was located there from July 3, 1860, to June 22, 1866, although it was probably not in continuous operation because of the Civil War. The site of the academy was 2 miles (3.2 km) southeast of Lebanon

Lebanon, Oklahoma

Lebanon is an unincorporated community in Marshall County, Oklahoma, United States. Although it is unincorporated, it has a post office, with the ZIP code of 73440.-History:...

 in what is now Marshall County

Marshall County, Oklahoma

Marshall County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of 2000, the population was 13,184. Its county seat is Madill. The county's population grew at a rate of 35% in the 1990s and now it has a new population estimate at 20,000. Marshall County is the fastest growing county in...

.

Burney was honored posthumously when the Burneyville post office opened on the site of the family farm on May 5, 1879. The post office is the oldest in Love County that is still in use. The first postmaster was James C. Nall.

The location of the town of Burneyville has never changed. It is situated nine miles (14 km) west of Marietta

Marietta, Oklahoma

Marietta is a city in Love County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 2,445 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Love County.Marietta is part of the Ardmore, Oklahoma Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...

, the county seat, and two and one-half miles southwest. It is approximately three miles north of the Red River. Walnut Creek Bayou passes to the north. The Burney Ferry, south of the Burney farm, was the main business and travel route before the Santa Fe railroad completed its north–south link between Indian Territory and Texas in 1887.

With the merger of Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory

Oklahoma Territory

The Territory of Oklahoma was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 2, 1890, until November 16, 1907, when it was joined with the Indian Territory under a new constitution and admitted to the Union as the State of Oklahoma.-Organization:Oklahoma Territory's...

 at statehood in 1907, the county of Love was carved from part of the former Pickens County. The county was named for Overton Love, an esteemed judge of the Chickasaw Nation court who had arrived in Indian Territory in 1843, one year prior to the Burney family.

For many years, Burneyville proper has consisted only of the post office, a Baptist church, two cemeteries, and 12 houses. But in its heyday through the first half of the 20th century, the townsite three miles (5 km) north of the Red River included a hotel, grocery, general merchandise store, blacksmith, druggist, and two doctors.

Geography

The 73430 Zip Code covers 93 square miles (240.9 km²) of mostly farms and ranches in the lush bottom lands of the Red River. Growers specialize in peanuts, pecans, watermelons, grains, hay, and cattle. Oil leases dot the area, and horse trainers also have operations. Love County has been called “the shopping mall of the world for quarter horses” in reference to its abundance of top equine stock and training specialists in reining, cutting, roping, pleasure, and barrel racing events. The county is midway on Interstate 35 between Oklahoma City and Fort Worth, the sites of the major quarter horse competitions in the United States.

The small rural communities of Jimtown, Batson, Turner, and Burneyville are located within the 73430 Zip Code.

Falconhead Resort & Country Club

More than fifty percent of the residents live two miles (3 km) west of the post office at Falconhead Resort & Country Club. Originally known as Turner's Lodge, it made golf history in the 1950s and 1960s as the smallest site ever to host both of golf's professional tours, the LPGA for women and the PGA for men. It was founded by Southern Oklahoma oil millionaire Waco Turner.

Now semi-private, the course today represents the only venue accessible to the average golfer to have been played by the outstanding professionals of their day. Among them were LPGA Hall of Famers Patty Berg

Patty Berg

Patricia Jane Berg was an American professional golfer and a founding member and then leading player on the Ladies Professional Golf Association Tour during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Her 15 major title wins remains the all-time record for most major wins by a female golfer...

, Betty Jameson

Betty Jameson

Elizabeth May "Betty" Jameson was an American professional golfer and one of the founders of the LPGA.-Biography:...

, Betsy Rawls

Betsy Rawls

Elizabeth Earle "Betsy" Rawls is an American professional golfer.Rawls was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina. After attending the University of Texas, Rawls joined the LPGA Tour in its second season in 1951. She won 55 tournaments on the tour, including eight major championships...

, Louise Suggs

Louise Suggs

Mae Louise Suggs is a retired professional golfer, one of the founders of the LPGA Tour and thus modern ladies' golf.-Amateur career:Born in Atlanta, Suggs had a very successful amateur career, beginning as a teenager...

, Kathy Whitworth

Kathy Whitworth

Kathy Whitworth is an American professional golfer. Throughout her playing career she won 88 LPGA Tour tournaments, more than anyone else has won on either the LPGA Tour or the PGA Tour. In 1981 she became the first woman to reach career earnings of $1 million on the LPGA Tour...

, Mickey Wright

Mickey Wright

Mary Kathryn "Mickey" Wright is an American professional golfer. She is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.-Early life:...

, and Babe Zaharias

Babe Zaharias

Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias was an American athlete who achieved outstanding success in golf, basketball, and track and field...

; and men's majors winners Jack Nicklaus

Jack Nicklaus

Jack William Nicklaus , nicknamed "The Golden Bear", is an American professional golfer. He won 18 career major championships on the PGA Tour over a span of 25 years and is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional golfers of all time. In addition to his 18 Majors, he was runner-up a...

, Raymond Floyd

Raymond Floyd

Raymond Loran "Ray" Floyd is an American professional golfer who has won numerous tournaments on both the PGA Tour and Champions Tour....

, Tommy Aaron

Tommy Aaron

Thomas Dean Aaron is a former American professional golfer who was a member of the PGA Tour during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Aaron is best known for winning the 1973 Masters Tournament.- Early years :...

, Charles Coody

Charles Coody

Billy Charles Coody is an American professional golfer, best known for winning the 1971 Masters Tournament.Coody was born in Stamford, Texas and raised in Abilene, Texas...

, Bob Goalby

Bob Goalby

Robert George Goalby is a former American professional golfer on the PGA Tour, who won the 1968 Masters Tournament, his lone major championship among 11 Tour wins achieved between 1958 and 1971....

, Gay Brewer

Gay Brewer

Gay Robert Brewer, Jr. was an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and won the 1967 Masters Tournament....

, Don January

Don January

Donald Ray January is an American professional golfer.January was born in Plainview, Texas, and graduated from Sunset High School in Dallas...

, Peter Thomson, Tony Lema

Tony Lema

Anthony David "Tony" Lema was an American professional golfer, who rose to fame in the beginning of golf's modern era, but had his young life and career cut short in an aircraft accident. His most prestigious victory was the 1964 British Open.-Biography:Lema was born in Oakland, California, to...

, Kel Nagle

Kel Nagle

Kelvin David George Nagle is an Australian professional golfer best known for winning The Open Championship in 1960. He won at least one tournament each year from 1949 to 1975.Nagle was born in North Sydney...

, Jack Fleck

Jack Fleck

Jack Fleck is an American professional golfer best known for winning the 1955 U.S. Open. He is the oldest living U.S. Open champion....

, Al Geiberger

Al Geiberger

Allen Lee Geiberger, Sr. is an American professional golfer who has won numerous golf tournaments.Geiberger was born in Red Bluff, California...

, Byron Nelson

Byron Nelson

John Byron Nelson, Jr. was an American PGA Tour golfer between 1935 and 1946.Nelson and two other well known golfers of the time, Ben Hogan and Sam Snead, were born within seven months of each other in 1912...

, and Bobby Nichols

Bobby Nichols

Robert Herman Nichols is an American professional golfer, best known for winning the 1964 PGA Championship.Nichols was born in Louisville, Kentucky. He attended St. Xavier High School in Louisville and later played golf at Texas A&M University were his team won the Southwest Conference Championship...

. Oklahoma's great U.S. Amateur champions Susie Maxwell Berning, Charles Coe

Charles Coe

Charles Robert "Charlie" Coe was an American golfer who is considered by many to be one of the greatest amateur golfers in history. A two-time U.S...

, and Labron Harris, Jr.

Labron Harris, Jr.

Labron E. Harris, Jr. is an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour in the 1960s and 1970s.Harris was born in Stillwater, Oklahoma and grew up playing the Oklahoma State University practice facility, Lakeside Golf Course...

, were frequent playing guests of the Turners at what was their private hunting, fishing, and golfing retreat.

Some years, the Opie Turner Open

Opie Turner Open

The Opie Turner Open was a golf tournament on the LPGA Tour from 1958 to 1959. It was played at Turner's Lodge in Burneyville, Oklahoma....

 and the Waco Turner Open

Waco Turner Open

The Waco Turner Open was a PGA Tour event that was played in Burneyville, Oklahoma in the early 1960s.The founder of the tournament, Waco Turner, was a millionaire Oklahoma oilman with a passion for golf...

 paid more in prize money than any other tour stops. A total of 13 professional events were contested at Turner's Lodge from 1958 to 1965. The layout underwent a redesign by golf course architect Robert Trent Jones, Sr., and a name-change to Falconhead Resort & Country Club, in 1970. Public access to the course may be made by calling the golf shop. Lots, homes, condominiums, and townhouses may be toured by calling the administrative office.

Red River Research and Demonstration Farm

Three miles southeast of the Burneyville post office, agricultural research takes place at a demonstration farm of the renowned Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, one of the top 50 grantmaking philanthropies in the United States. The Foundation was founded by Lloyd Noble

Samuel Lloyd Noble

Samuel Lloyd Noble, known as Lloyd Noble , was an oilman and philanthropist, founder of the Noble Corporation and the The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation...

, oil millionaire and lifelong friend of Waco Turner.

The Red River Research and Demonstration Farm is part of a distinguished operations division of the foundation, which brings scientists from around the world to southern Oklahoma to engage in plant biology, forage improvement, and agriculture research. Currently, the Noble Foundation is collaborating with the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University in studying switch grass as an alternative to carbon fuels. Their initiative, known as the Oklahoma Bioenergy Center, was established by the Oklahoma Legislature in 2008.

Education

Turner School, the pre-Kindergarten through grade 12 public school one-half mile west of Falconhead Resort & Country Club, is named in honor of Waco Turner. The gymnasium was named for his wife, Opie James Turner.

Before striking it rich in the oil fields of southern Oklahoma and east Texas in the 1920s, the couple had taught school at Burneyville. They donated the land for the consolidated Turner School, which combined the students of the former Burneyville, Courtney, Meadowbrook, and Dunbar schools.

Turner School and Falconhead Resort & Country Club (formerly the private Turner's Lodge) celebrate their 50th anniversaries in August 2008.

Airport

Falconhead Airport

Falconhead Airport

Falconhead Airport is a public use airport located two nautical miles northwest of the central business district of Burneyville, in Love County, Oklahoma, United States...

 is located two nautical mile

Nautical mile

The nautical mile is a unit of length that is about one minute of arc of latitude along any meridian, but is approximately one minute of arc of longitude only at the equator...

s northwest of the central business district

Central business district

A central business district is the commercial and often geographic heart of a city. In North America this part of a city is commonly referred to as "downtown" or "city center"...

of Burneyville.

External links

• Information about Burneyville