Sand Springs was founded in 1908 by oil entrepreneur Charles Page, who bought 160 acres to house orphaned children — starting with just seven kids in a tent. That children's home grew into a full campus, and in 1918 Page added a "widow's colony" so mothers who'd lost husbands could keep their families together while their children were cared for. Page also built the Sand Springs Railway, an interurban line to Tulsa that ran until 1955 — the last of its kind in the state — and an 80-acre park with a carousel, Ferris wheel, and roller coaster. The city has grown to nearly 20,000 residents today, still carrying that community-first history Page built it on.
