Cimarron Baptist Association

A History of the Churches & Communities
of Cimarron Baptist Association

The area that is now Cimarron Baptist Association (Pawnee, Payne and Creek counties) has a rich, though largely unrecorded history. The association is named for the Cimarron River which runs through or touches all three counties.

The earliest people lived some 1,500 years ago in caves and under rock shelters in the western part of the state. Indians lived in and migrated back and forth across what is now Oklahoma as they hunted. The Spanish were the first Europeans to explore Oklahoma. Francisco Vazquez de Coronado crossed the western part of the state in 1541. When the first Baptist associations were being formed in England in the mid-1600's, Oklahoma was a land divided between the Spanish conquests of the Western United States and the French through it's Mississippi river trading companies exploring  the streams in eastern Oklahoma.  It was 110 years after the first Baptist association was founded in Philadelphia in 1707 before the trader Auguste Pierre Chouteau established the first permanent settlement--now Salina--in 1817.

In 1803 the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France. In 1808 the powerful Osage tribe ceded to the United States all of eastern Oklahoma north of the Arkansas River, and in 1818 the Quapaw Indians ceded all claims to lands south of the Arkansas in present-day Oklahoma and Arkansas.

The government of the United States negotiated treaties with the Indians living in the Southeastern part of the nation whereby they would relinquish their Eastern lands in exchange for territory encompassing nearly all of present-day Oklahoma. The Five Civilized Tribes -- Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole--were primarily successful farmers or professionals who adopted many cultural traits of the white settlers. The Creeks were settled north of the Canadian and west of the Arkansas in the area still encompassed by Creek county.  This migration for these uprooted tribes became "The Trail of Tears" but with the coming of the tribes to Oklahoma, along came Baptist missionaries seeking to minister, evangelize and provide education for these. 

In 1835 Mr. and Mrs. Potts were sent as missionaries to the Choctaws along Red River in Oklahoma. They opened a mission school, to which they gave the name of Providence, at a point in what is now Choctaw County, twelve miles west of Fort Towson and six miles north of Red River. The career of Mr. Potts as a missionary and educator in the western portion of the Choctaw Nation continued through a period of more than seventeen years. In 1844, when the Choctaws decided to found an academy for boys in the western portion of Pushmataha District, Rev. R. D. Potts was invited to take charge of it. In 1846, a group including Rev. Potts proceeded to organize what the old minute book of the Philadelphia church asserts to be the "first Baptist church in the Choctaw Nation."

Payne and Pawnee counties are a part of that area known as the Unassigned Lands near the center of Oklahoma, not allotted to any tribes. Many people, especially the "Boomers" under the leadership of Capt. David L. Payne, demanded that the Unassigned Lands be opened to settlement. On Apr. 22, 1889, the "horse race," or "run," method was used to claim the plots in that part of the Unassigned Lands refered to as the Cimarron Strip. The Unassigned Lands was officially designated Oklahoma Territory on May 2, 1890.

Formed by the union of Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory, Oklahoma was admitted as the 46th state on Nov. 16, 1907. Oklahoma is a Choctaw word meaning "red man." Oklahoma has been nicknamed the "Sooner State" for the settlers who tried to enter the area and claim land sooner than it was legal to do so.

Baptist associational work in the three county area reaches back prior to statehood. The earliest identifiable associational work was the Pawnee County Baptist Association in 1898 with six churches and a total membership of 146. In 1925 the Southern Baptist churches of Pawnee county merged with those in Creek county (which had been associated with the Delaware Baptist Association, organized in 1892 and included a large portion of the northeastern Indian Territory). The Pawnee-Creek Baptist Association was organized on October 14, 1925 at Bristow. On October 15, 1946 at Yale, Oklahoma, this body dissolved to form Creek County Baptist Association and Pawnee-Payne Baptist Association. On October 11, 1951 at the Southside Baptist Church in Stillwater the decision was made to merge the two associations into the current form as the Cimarron Baptist Association. Estel Thomason came to serve as the first Associational Missionary in 1951 and remained until his retirement in 1974. Harry Dee Griffin came to serve as Director of Missions in 1974 and remained until his retirement in 1990. Dr. Tom Owens came to serve as Director of Missions in 1990.

In 1964 the Cimarron Baptist Association purchased Camp Lela Baptist Assembly from the Home Mission Board at a cost of $7,500. The 38 acre camp grounds was developed by the Home Mission Board as an Indian encampment. A new dorm was added to the facilities in 1966 and a staff dorm was added in 1973. The camp caretaker's home was built in 1981. In 2000 a new cafeteria & general purpose building was finished and all indebtedness was retired in 2001.  This came with general remodeling of the old cafeteria into an additional dorm and refurbishing of the rest of the dorms.  New showers and air conditioners have brought the grounds up to scale as a first class encampment for a capacity of approximately 200 children and sponsors.  With this has come the equipment for mowing and grounds keeping to make the camp one of the most attractive small encampments in the state.

The current office facilities of the association located at 1244 E. Main in Cushing were purchased in 1982. Future plans for this facility include remodeling for better space usage and provision of additional office space.

In 1993 the associational adopted the following mission statement: Cimarron Baptist Association exists to assist its member churches in the fulfillment of the Great Commission. This affirms the historical purpose of the association as an expression of mutual fellowship and support between the churches which comprise this association.