Lake Aluma, OK

Lake Aluma is a tiny incorporated town tucked immediately northeast of Oklahoma City in a valley beside the Deep Fork River. It began in the 1920s as a residential development of the Lake Aluma Club, whose members imagined a golf course, wildlife preserve, and lakeside retreat on a hilly, wooded camping site. A dam created the lake primarily for fishing, a small hatchery supplied fish, and sewer, water, and electric utilities were in place by 1926. The town incorporated in 1952.

That history still shows the town’s unusual relationship to the Oklahoma City metro. Lake Aluma has no commercial district within its borders; its streets lead through a small residential community organized around the lake, wooded slopes, and private homes. Millwood Public Schools serves local students, while nearby Oklahoma City supplies the metropolitan services and workplaces. Lake Aluma is a place built as a country retreat within the city’s edge, and the old lake-and-club plan remains more visible than any downtown.