This lonely building, once a busy bank, is one of a very few left in Lehigh, Oklahoma.  It is now a quiet country township of wooded lots, country lanes, and simple homes.

Lehigh is in Choctaw Nation, and at one time it was a thriving coal mining community, which may account for this large bank building.  My Choctaw great-great granny, Cynthia Jane Hoggard Rogers, was living here with her daughter when she died in 1923.

My research shows that on February 23, 1912, there was a terrible mining disaster in this town.

FLAMES RAVAGE OKLAHOMA MINE
BETWEEN 20 AND 40 BELIEVED TO BE ENTOMBED
SIX BODIES ARE RECOVERED
ONE HUNDRED MEN WALK OR ARE CARRIED TO SAFETY BY RESCUE SQUAD, SOME UNCONSCIOUS, HOPE FOR THOSE REMAINING IN SHAFT IS ABANDONED

Lehigh, Okla., Feb. 23, 1912 — It is believed that between 20 and 40 miners employed in the coal mine of the Wichita Coal and Mining company lost their lives when fire broke out in mine No. 5, entombing the men. The filling up of the shafts with smoke and the failure of the machinery to work prevented their rescue…

Source:  Evening Tribune Marysville Ohio 1912-02-23