Canute was chartered on July 2, 1902, in Oklahoma Territory, and its city lots were sold by lottery for $10.00 per lot. The 1st State Bank received its charter in 1904, a water well was dug in the middle of Main Street with a windmill for horses ridden to town, rural mail delivery started in 1904, and a big wolf hunt took place south of Canute in 1905. The railroad and depot came to town in 1907, Oklahoma became a state on November 16, 1907, and Canute Consolidated School District #1 started in 1908. The first oil and gas well in the area was drilled in 1917, electrification came in 1924, the first phone lines arrived in 1925, Holy Family Catholic Church school, rectory, and convent were built from 1926 to 1928, and the Grotto/Crucifixion was built in 1928. The Great Depression began in 1929, U.S. 66 opened through Canute to the Texas line in 1931, and City Park, the 1st Oklahoma state park, was built on Route 66 in 1936. On April 7, 1938, the Snowstorm of the Century filled in the old 66 railroad underpass on the west side of town and stopped Route 66 traffic for 10 days, and on August 14, 1945, bells rang when Japan surrendered. From 1955 to 1958, farmers faced a serious dry spell and drought. Canute installed a public water and sewer system in 1962, officially started a volunteer fire department in 1964, and was bypassed by I-40 in 1967. Farm land prices hit record highs in 1979, the 1970-80's brought an oil boom followed by an oil bust in the 1980's, and a new modern school gymnasium was built in 1984. A native of Canute, David Walters, was elected Governor of Oklahoma from 1990 to 1994, Randy Beutler served as state representative from 1992 to 2000, Jack Bonny served as state representative from 1992 to the present, girls basketball won a state championship in 1997, internet access first became available in 1997, a space port authority was formed for the area in 2001, and a major ice storm shut down electricity for 5 days in 2002. Over the years, Canute also had three cotton gins, an elevator, a feed lot, barber and beauty shops, three grocery stores, drug stores and dry goods, a dance hall and movie theatre, a laundry and dry cleaning plant, a doctor's office, a livery stable, a blacksmith shop, a telephone office, a post office, a pool hall, a lumber yard, a meat locker, a dress shop, several cafes and beer joints, motels, farm equipment and supply businesses, several oil field related businesses, a bank, a liquor store, and four churches.