The story of Medicine Park began in 1908, when it was founded as Oklahoma’s first resort town.  The founder, John William Elmer Thomas, fell in love with every aspect of it, from the unique cobblestone deposits, to the mountains and plains that surrounded the town, to the wilderness beyond the horizon.   He bought the land and began construction on what he called the “Medicine Park Summer Resort and Health Spa”, referring to the medicinal qualities of the nearby Medicine Creek that the Plains Indians had told him about.