Retiring Guy's Digest: Population loss in rural Oklahoma: Alfalfa County

Population loss as in major -- 50% or more.

Source: Wikipedia (Alfalfa County, Cherokee)

Cherokee is the county seat of Alfalfa County.

Population loss by degrees: 80-89%, 70-79%, 60-69%, 50-59%.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts

Percentage of population 25 and older with a bachelor's degree:

20.9% - Alfalfa County
24.8% - Oklahoma
30.9% - U.S.

Percentage of population 65 and older:

19.0% - Alfalfa County
15.3% - Oklahoma
15.6% - U.S.

The last time Alfalfa County voted for a Democratic candidate for president was in 1936, when FDR won his 2nd of 4 terms. In 1964, Barry Goldwater beat LBJ by 17.2 percentage points, and third-party candidate George Wallace received 8.1% of the vote in 1968.

Cherokee City-County Library

Related reading:

Rash of Suicides in Oklahoma Shows That the Crisis on the Farm Goes On. (The New York Times, 8/17/1987)

Warren Cox, a 51-year-old wheat farmer from Carmen, in northwestern Oklahoma, who was found July 15 slumped under a tree along a dirt road outside of town with a shotgun in his lap. Mr. Cox, a member of the Town Council, received a foreclosure notice from his bank a month before he died. He was one of three farmers from Alfalfa County who killed themselves in the last two years. ''We haven't experienced anything like this before,'' said Verlin Dean Berg, the county's Undersheriff.

Other Oklahoma population loss posts:

Western third

Cimarron County/Boise City. (5/27/2019)

Beaver County/Beaver. (5/27/2019)

Harper County/Buffalo. (5/28/2019)

Ellis County/Arnett. (5/28/2019)

Roger Mills/Cheyenne. (5/28/2019)

Greer County/Mangum. (5/29/2019)

Harmon County/Hollis. (5/29/2019)

Tillman County/Frederick. (5/29/2019)
Kiowa County/Hobart. (5/30/2019)
Washita County/New Cordell. (5/30/2019)
Dewey County/Taloga. (5/30/2019)

Other population loss series:

Detroit metro.