How Eufaula happened to exist will be Friend’s speaker’s topic at the Eufaula Memorial Library at 1 p.m. Friday, July 18, When Eufaula was only an intersection, the city’s founding fathers lived in a village called North Fork Town. William (Bud) McCombs will explain why those shrewd entrepreneurs left their businesses there to gamble on better business in this area.

A descendent of two grandfathers who were early Eufaulans, Mc-Combs research into the city’s beginnings led him to North Fork Town when hundreds of emigrants traveled through Indian Country on the Texas trail on their way to Texas and Mexico.

At the same time, and especially during the gold rush of 1849, travelers crowded the California Trail which started in Fort Smith, Arkansas and intersected with the Texas Trail just south of North Fork.

That intersection became Eufaula, and McCombs will tell the Friends’ audience how and why the city emerged and the original city fathers’ contributions to its growth.

His speech in the Follansbee Room at Eufaula Memorial Library at 1 p.m. Friday, July 18, is open to the public. No admission fee is charged, and light refreshments will be served.

McComb is a EHS and Oklahoma State University graduate who served in the Army hospital company and served 30 years with the Indian Health Service.

The Friends’ sponsor a speaker at their meetings on the third Friday of every month, and brochures listing all for 2025 are available for pickup at the library, 301 S.1st St., Eufaula.

Envelopes for joining the Friends are also available to hold the $5 membership fee and to be put in the membership box.

If you’re interested in seeing an increase of cultural offerings in our community, plan to join the Friends’ and help with their goal of making that happen.

You may do so at McComb’s upcoming speech or by contacting FEML@gmail. com or calling President Gail Rose at 918-7702440.