Elk City's Stories of the Year

December 29, 2023

By Landry Brewer

Elk City’s most newsworthy events of 2023 included rescue and renovation, construction and education, athletics and taxation, triumph and tragedy.

In January, demolition of Fairview Elementary School was completed. The school opened in 1951 and closed in 2018 after the new Elk City Elementary School was built

Elk City firefighters rescued two construction workers on March 3 when the trench they were installing a water line in at the intersection of Main and Broadway collapsed. Both men were trapped 14 feet underground for about an hour—one man covered with dirt up to his waist, the other up to his shoulders.

On April 4, Elk City voters overwhelmingly approved repurposing and continuing an existing half-cent sales tax to remodel the police station and expand and modernize the fire station. The original tax was begun in 2015 to help Elk City Schools pay for the Elk City Elementary building.

The same month that Elk Citians voted to extend the sales tax, the Susan Powell Fine Arts Center renovation project was completed. Elk City native and building namesake Susan Powell attended the June 2 fine arts center grand reopening.

In early June, Elk City High School’s Kash Mayfield was named the 2022-23 Gatorade Oklahoma Baseball Player of the Year. The ECHS senior recently signed with Oklahoma State University to play baseball for the Cowboys.

Elk City’s new aquatic center, located in Ackley Park on the site of the previous aquatic center, also opened in June.

On August 4 and 5, the first ECHS Alumni Reunion since the outbreak of COVID was held at the Elk City Convention Center. The turnout was huge.

The same month, Southwestern Oklahoma State University began offering college classes at Elk City High School for ECHS juniors and seniors. Several SWOSU classes taught by faculty from the Sayre and Weatherford campuses will also be offered at ECHS in the spring.

In November, the Western Oklahoma Bulls, the area’s professional basketball team, tipped off their first season with home games at The Arrowhead Center in Elk City. The team is owned by El Reno native Jonathan Reed.

Six passengers in a minivan died when it struck a Ford pickup at the intersection of Route 66 and Highway 34, three miles west of Elk City, on November 21. The minivan driver, Jose Paxtor Oxlai, was treated at Great Plains Regional Medical Center and released, after which he was arrested and charged with six counts of first-degree manslaughter and one count of causing an accident that produced great bodily injury without a valid driver’s license.

Also in November, the new Elk City Golf and Country Club clubhouse opened. The previous clubhouse was destroyed by the May 16, 2017, tornado that hit Elk City.

Elk City High School went on lockdown on December 4 when school officials were made aware that a student was sharing photos of a gun that he had brought to school. Elk City Police officers found an unloaded gun in a school bathroom and took a 14-year-old student into custody.