Alsuma

Alsuma is a ghost town located in Tulsa County, Oklahoma, situated between the cities of Tulsa and Broken Arrow. Its origins date to the early twentieth century, when a post office opened in 1905 under the name Welcome before being rechristened Alsuma in 1906.

The story behind that rename is itself a local curiosity. One account credits a merchant named John Alsuma as the namesake. A more colorful version holds that three town leaders, unable to agree on a name, ultimately honored their wives instead — Alice, Susan, and Mabel — with the new name blending elements of all three as a face-saving compromise.

Today Alsuma exists in name more than in form, absorbed into the suburban sprawl between Tulsa and Broken Arrow. Visitors with an interest in Oklahoma history may find the area worth a brief detour, though little physical evidence of the original community remains. The setting is more historical footnote than dramatic ruin.