Abandoned Towns
Aerial view of the Hext crossroads: farm fields, a cluster of trees around the school ruin, and I-40 and old Route 66 running diagonally

Farm and ranch town · On Route 66

Hext

A farm hamlet that had a post office for a year and a half and never much more. What's left beside old Route 66 is the shell of a 1930s WPA school, which burned in 2021, a stone filling station turned house, a church and two lanes of abandoned highway.

35°14′51″N 99°45′10″W · ≈1,920 ft

Aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).

Overview

Just a gas station

Hext is a crossroads in the farm country of western Beckham County, between Sayre and Erick. The railroad came west, settlers followed, and on June 4, 1901 a post office opened, named for William Hext, a local farmer. It closed in November 1902. The census has never counted Hext separately.

Route 66 arrived in 1929, when the highway between Sayre and Erick was moved north onto a new paved line through the hamlet. When Jack Rittenhouse drove it for his 1946 guidebook, he wrote that Hext was "not a community", just a gas station, and that from here west many map towns were no more than one building. The Works Progress Administration built a brick school here in the 1930s, the highway was widened to four lanes in 1956, and in 1975 this stretch became the last in Oklahoma to lose its US 66 signs to Interstate 40.

There are no businesses at Hext now; Wikipedia says the land is used for horse breeding and farming. Hext Baptist Church still holds services. What draws Route 66 travelers is the school's burned shell beside the interstate, the stone filling station at the west end, and the old westbound lanes of the four-lane highway, abandoned and overgrown since 1975.

Timeline

A post office, a highway and a school

  1. Settlers have followed the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad, later the Rock Island, west into the area. A post office named for William Hext, a local farmer, opens.
  2. The post office closes after a year and a half.
  3. US 66 is designated. Between Sayre and Erick it first runs farther south, through Delhi.
  4. The highway is moved onto its line through Hext and paved in 1929 and 1930.
  5. The Works Progress Administration builds a brick school at Hext.
  6. Jack Rittenhouse's guidebook calls Hext "not a community", just a gas station.
  7. Route 66 west of Sayre is widened to four lanes.
  8. I-40 opens. This stretch is the last in Oklahoma to lose the US 66 designation. The interstate's westbound lanes are built on the old eastbound lanes, and the old westbound lanes are left to the weeds.
  9. The school closes. No source gives a date; two visitors guess the 1960s.
  10. The empty school burns. Firefighters from Erick put out the fire.

What's here

School, station and old lanes

The school. The red brick school stands in a cluster of trees between I-40 and the old highway, at the corner of Bank 15 and East 1220 Road, and it can be seen from the interstate. A low stone wall runs in front; the WPA plaque that was set in it has gone missing. A visitor in early 2020 found the building empty, with hay stored in the arched auditorium and the ceiling falling in. It burned in April 2021. Photographs and a video posted in January 2022 show roofless brick walls with empty window openings, behind a fence along the road. Its owner isn't named in any source we read, so look from the road.

The filling station. On the west side of the hamlet, on the south side of Route 66 at East 1220 Road, is a stone building that was a filling station. Its pumps were removed and the service bay was made into a house. Sources call it the station Rittenhouse meant in 1946. One 2020 account says the house has since been abandoned. It is private.

The highway. West of Sayre, Route 66 was four lanes from 1956. When I-40 opened in 1975 it was built over the old eastbound lanes, and the westbound pair was left beside it. TheRoute-66.com describes the 1929–1930 concrete running a few feet north of today's road, closed and partly grown over with trees, as far as exit 11. A video posted in April 2023 shows the 1929 concrete cracked and narrowed by brush and trees. Hext Baptist Church, on Bank 15, is the one building in regular use, and visitors since 2020 describe a few other small abandoned buildings near the school.

  • Burned WPA school (1930s)
  • Stone filling station, converted to a house
  • Hext Baptist Church (active)
  • Abandoned westbound lanes of four-lane Route 66
  • A few small farm buildings

The historic maps below show the highway's place. On the 1955 sheet Hext sits on US 66 and the Rock Island tracks between Sayre and Erick, with Delhi, on the first 1926 route, to the south. The 1985 sheet shows I-40 curving past the Hext label with an interchange, and the railroad, marked Farmrail, just to the north.

USGS topographic map of the Hext crossroads with I-40 and the old highway running diagonally
USGS The National Map, topo. The Hext label sits at the crossroads of Bank 15 and the east–west section road, between the railroad and old Route 66 to the north and I-40 to the south.
Aerial view of farm fields at the Hext crossroads, with the I-40 interchange at lower right
Aerial imagery, same area. The school stands in the clump of trees near the crossroads; the I-40 interchange at exit 14 is at lower right.

Historic maps

Hext on USGS maps, 1955–1985

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Hext, 1955
Clinton sheet, 1955, 1:250,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Hext is at I-40 exit 14, about 10 minutes west of Sayre. From Oklahoma City it's about two hours and 25 minutes west on I-40. Both routes end on Bank 15 just north of the exit, by the school ruin.

Topographic map along I-40 from Sayre west to Hext, with the route drawn on it

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From downtown Sayre8.5 miabout 10 min
  1. From downtown Sayre, turn right onto South 4th Street (Business I-40, US 283 and Route 66).1.9 mi
  2. Take the ramp onto Business I-40.0.3 mi
  3. Merge onto I-40 west.6.0 mi
  4. Take exit 14.0.2 mi
  5. Continue straight onto Bank 15.0.1 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • Interstate to exit 14, then a short way north on Bank 15.
  • The school ruin, the old station and the farms are private, and the school is a burned shell. See them from the public road.
  • There are no services at Hext. Sayre and Erick have gas and food.

Photos

Have photos of Hext?

We haven’t added photographs of Hext yet. If you’ve visited, share your photos and a field report below.

Visitor reports

Been to Hext?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Hext

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Oklahoma index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. Wikipedia, "Hext, Oklahoma", retrieved October 2026: the name, the railroad, the post office dates, the 1929 alignment, the 1975 designation change, the stone filling station turned house, no businesses, horse breeding and farming, coordinates (GNIS).
  2. Kathy Alexander, "Hext, Erick & Texola – Gateways to Oklahoma," Legends of America (read October 2026): William Hext as a local farmer, the Rittenhouse quote, the WPA school, the church as the one building in use, the last stretch to lose US 66.
  3. TheRoute-66.com, "Hext" (read October 2026): the 1926 route through Delhi, the 1929–1930 paving, the 1956 four-laning, the abandoned westbound lanes, the church and school on Bank 15, the station at East 1220 Road, the full Rittenhouse entry.
  4. Quincy Vagell, "Hext, Oklahoma: Ghost Town", March 5, 2020: the school in early 2020, hay in the auditorium, the falling ceiling, small buildings nearby, services at the church, the station house since abandoned.
  5. Keith Dotson, "About the Ruins of the Old School in Hext, Oklahoma", January 15, 2022: the April 2021 fire and the Erick firefighters, the school's location and visibility from I-40, the stone wall and missing WPA plaque.
  6. Keith Dotson Photography, "Ruins of 1930s School in Hext, Oklahoma | Abandoned Places Photography", YouTube, posted January 15, 2022: the school's standing brick walls after the fire, the fence along the road, the Hext Baptist Church.
  7. Route 66 Suite (by Nolan Stolz), "EP042: A drive on old 66 from Hext, OK", YouTube, posted April 24, 2023: the condition of the abandoned 1929 lanes west of Hext.
  8. ghosttowns.com, "Hext": fact sheet (county, 2WD road, climate, best time, remains).
  9. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits