Osage Bank of Fairfax

A modest two-storey brick building on Main Street, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Osage Bank of Fairfax was the first bank in the county and is the most visible surviving structure from the Reign of Terror years. The bank operated here until 1927, then later as the First National Bank; the building was eventually closed for banking and converted to other uses. The exterior is largely as it was a hundred years ago.

There is no museum and no plaque to spell out the connection, only the bank itself standing on a quiet main street. For the wider story, drive 25 miles east to the Osage Nation Museum in Pawhuska.

things to do sight
A story
The Osage Bank, opened in 1903, was the first bank building in Osage County. In the 1920s it was at the centre of Osage life — the bank cashier and trustee, William K. Hale, was later convicted as the chief conspirator behind the systematic murders of Osage allottees for their oil headrights, the events at the heart of David Grann's *Killers of the Flower Moon*.