Lugert Luxe Retreat

The town of Lugert was founded on this spot in the mountains in 1901. It was little more than a rural townsite that supplied nearby farms with small-town essentials like a bank, general store, post office, and a handful of other rural businesses. An entire town once thrived below what now looks like a normal lake. The town of Lugert essentially disappeared when a dam was built in the 1940s, and most people have no idea this underwater city in Oklahoma exists. When the lake waters are extremely low, you can still see remnants from this lost town. Founded in 1901, Lugert had a population between 300–400 people. It was named in honor of a prominent local merchant and the town’s founder, Frank Lugert. He moved to Oklahoma and filed a claim when Indian lands opened up in 1901, receiving 80 acres of land at the base of the Wichita Mountains near the Red River. He started the town of Lugert and owned the general store and post office, even coining his own money to be used in his store. Tragedy struck in 1912 when a tornado came through town and destroyed 41 out of the 42 buildings. The only structure to remain was Lugert’s General Store. The town continued to exist, but on a much smaller scale. In 1926, Altus passed a bond to build a dam across the North Fork of the Red River for a source of city water, flooding the town of Lugert. The dam, as it stands today, was completed in 1947. Frank Lugert rebuilt his buildings and moved his General Store next to the lake, running it until a few years before his death in 1958. From time to time, when drought strikes southwest Oklahoma, remains of this underwater ghost town can still be found.