Mannford Roofing Above Keystone Lake
In 1962 the whole town packed up and moved to a hilltop so Keystone Lake could fill the valley. Every Mannford roof sits on that decision.
The Town That Moved
Mannford is the only town we serve that is not where it started. When Keystone Dam was built, the original townsite was going under the lake, and in 1962 and 1963 the entire town was relocated. It is recorded as the first comprehensively planned relocated town in Oklahoma. Few towns can name the year every house in town started over. Mannford can.
The old town is still there, under the water. At Old Mannford Ramp Park, near the original site, the sidewalks and yards of Old Mannford can sometimes be seen in dry seasons. The Mannford Historical Museum keeps photographs, buggies and farm equipment from the town that was left behind.
The name goes back further than the lake. It comes from Mann's Ford, a crossing on the Cimarron River on land allotted to the Creek allottees Tom and Hazel Mann. The post office opened on April 11, 1903, after the Arkansas Valley and Western Railway came through. One source puts its incorporation in 1903, while the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History dates its first federal census to 1930. The town had 3,262 people at the 2020 Census.
On a Hilltop Above the Water
The new Mannford was placed on a hilltop overlooking Keystone Lake, deliberately, to keep it out of the floodwater. That choice solved one problem and created another. A town on high ground beside open water takes wind with nothing to break it, and a roof on a hill takes the strongest of it at the ridge and along the edges.
We will be straight about the storm record. Between 2016 and 2026, the National Weather Service logged no significant hail or wind events at the Mannford reporting point at all. That is a confirmed gap in the data, consistent with a small, rural town sitting between larger reporting points, and not a sign that storms go around it. The nearby Sand Springs point is empty too. The Sapulpa reporting point, by contrast, logged 29 significant events over the same years.
So Mannford's record tells you almost nothing about your roof. On a hilltop above a lake, the safe assumption is that wind has been working on it, and an inspection is the only way to know how much.
The Relocated Town and the Shoreline
Because Mannford was rebuilt from the relocation forward, its houses tell a cleaner roofing story than almost any town in the area.
The planned town
Mannford's housing largely dates from 1962 onward, so there is very little of the century-old stock that complicates roofs in older towns: plank decking, three layers of shingles, chimneys flashed by several generations. What Mannford has instead is a town rebuilt over a short span, and houses built around the same time reach the end of their roofs together. If the neighbors on your street are replacing theirs, check yours. A Mannford house built during the move in 1962 or 1963 has very likely had its original roof replaced twice by now, so the question there is how well the last crew did it.
The shoreline
Keystone Lake sits where the Cimarron and Arkansas Rivers fork, on the same Cimarron that Mann's Ford once crossed. Mannford houses that look out over it have the best view in town and the hardest wind. The windward slope, the ridge and the rake trim along the gable ends take the strain, and lake humidity shows on the shaded side as algae streaks and moss.
Old Mannford Ramp Park
The ramp park sits down near the submerged original town, at the water's edge. Any Mannford property down near the water deals with more damp than the hilltop does, which means slower drying after rain and gutters that need clearing more often.
After the 2012 wildfire
The 2012 wildfire is part of Mannford's recent history, and it is a roofing issue too. Wind carries embers well ahead of a fire, and they land in gutters full of dry leaves and in the gaps along a roof edge. Clear gutters and a roof covering with a Class A fire rating, which most asphalt shingles carry, are the cheapest defenses there are.
Neighbors
From our Jenks shop we also serve Sand Springs and Skiatook, along with Sapulpa.
Free Roof Inspection in Mannford
A Mannford roof on the hill takes wind that the storm record never wrote down. We will check it for free and show you exactly what we find.