History of Mulhall
The town began as a railroad station for the Santa Fe railroad, and was named Alfred, for the son of an attorney.The town is named after Zach Mulhall, father of Lucille Mulhall who was the first official 'cowgirl' to actually compete against men in rodeo events and win. The town name was changed from Alfred to Mulhall due to a petition made by Zach to the railroad shortly after the land run of 1889 because there were two towns named 'Alfred' at that time.
Zach Mulhall hosted his own show for many years across the country with Lucille starring in those shows along with her siblings. Zach and the Mulhall family were also friends with the Miller Brothers of 101 Ranch Fame in nearby Ponca City and often performed with them and shared talent for their shows when needed. Will Rogers and Tom Mix were also integral parts of the early years of the shows and Will (then performing under the stage name, "The Cherokee Kid}") is credited with teaching Lucille how to twirl-another talent for which she was known.
Carrie Nation visited Mulhall in 1901 to tell the town saloons about the evils of liquor and warning that she would return. The town immediately ordered the saloon out of business.
In 1907, Leslie's Weekly carried a picture of Lucille, calling her the world's champion lariat thrower, a title she won in San Antonio. It also states that she entertained President Theodore Roosevelt.
About 80 percent of the town was destroyed on May 3, 1999, 110 years after the town's founding, by a violent high-end F4 tornado (possibly F5 before hitting the town) which was recorded to be well over one mile wide at times. The town's water tower collapsed due to the violent winds. You can still the concrete squares where the old water tower stood. (details of the Record for the The Widest Tornado: The widest tornado as measured by actual radar wind measurements was the Mulhall (1999) tornado in northern Oklahoma which occurred during the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak. A Doppler On Wheels (DOW) mobile radar observed this tornado as it crossed Mulhall. The DOW documented the largest ever observed core flow circulation with a distance of 1600 m between peak velocities on either side of the tornado, and a roughly 7 km (4 miles) width of peak wind gusts exceeding 43 m/s, making the Mulhall tornado the largest tornado ever measured quantitatively.)