Halfway House

Notla, on Farm Road 281 in the southeast corner of Ochiltree County, began in 1906, when Bud Westerfield and Frank L. Hamilton purchased land in that vicinity. That fall Westerfield and his family built a house, a barn, and a camphouse for transients. Since the site was on the freight route between Canadian and the ranching area around Ochiltree, it was originally dubbed Half-Way. In 1916 Hamilton, who was part owner of the Alton Grocery Company of Enid, Oklahoma, moved his family out to the land he had bought a decade earlier. There he farmed and later opened a store and filling station. In 1920, when the Hamiltons applied for a post office, the name Notla was chosen as a reversed spelling of the Alton company. Established initially at the Hamiltons' house, the post office was shortly afterward moved to the store. By that time several families had moved into the vicinity to farm. The Hamiltons continued to operate the store until February 1944, when they sold their farm and moved back to Enid. The post office was discontinued in October of that year, but the store remained in business until about 1950. From 1940 to 2000 Notla reported a population of twenty.