| Wynnewood, Oklahoma | |
| Settlement Type: | City |
| Mapsize: | 250px |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | United States |
| Subdivision Type1: | State |
| Subdivision Name1: | Oklahoma |
| Subdivision Type2: | County |
| Subdivision Name2: | Garvin |
| Unit Pref: | Imperial |
| Area Footnotes: | [1] |
| Area Total Km2: | 4.03 |
| Area Land Km2: | 4.03 |
| Area Water Km2: | 0.00 |
| Area Total Sq Mi: | 1.55 |
| Area Land Sq Mi: | 1.55 |
| Area Water Sq Mi: | 0.00 |
| Population As Of: | 2020 |
| Population Total: | 1927 |
| Population Density Km2: | 478.70 |
| Population Density Sq Mi: | 1240.03 |
| Timezone: | Central (CST) |
| Utc Offset: | -6 |
| Timezone Dst: | CDT |
| Utc Offset Dst: | -5 |
| Elevation Ft: | 896 |
| Coordinates: | 34.6439°N -97.1647°W |
| Postal Code Type: | ZIP code |
| Postal Code: | 73098 |
| Area Code: | 405 |
| Blank Name: | FIPS code |
| Blank Info: | 40-82400[2] |
| Blank1 Name: | GNIS feature ID |
| Blank1 Info: | 2412312 |
Wynnewood is a city in Garvin County, Oklahoma, United States. It is south of Oklahoma City. The population was 1,927 at the time of the 2020 census.[3] [4] Located in what was then the Chickasaw Nation of Indian Territory, it began as a village called "Walner" in 1886, on the proposed route of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway. Railroad workers from Pennsylvania named the community for Wynnewood, a community outside of Philadelphia. The name became official on April 6, 1887.[5]
At the time of its founding, Wynnewood was located in Pickens County, Chickasaw Nation.[6]
Wynnewood quickly became a market town for the surrounding area. In 1887, Presbyterian missionary Mary Semple Hotchkins moved her school for Chickasaw children from Cherokee Town to Wynnewood. In 1901, local citizens paid for building Indianola College. A promotional brochure published in 1907 called Wynnewood "the Queen City of the Famous Washita Valley." It could soon boast of having an opera house, electric lights, telephones, and the thirty-room Eskridge Hotel.[5]
The Eskridge Hotel continued in business until 1970, when it closed for good. In 1973, the Wynnewood Historical Society bought the three-story structure and converted it into a museum of local history. Hotel rooms have been decorated to depict life in Oklahoma during the late 19th century and early 20th century. In 1978, the former hotel was added to the National Register of Historic Places listings in Garvin County, Oklahoma,[7] where it now resides along with Wynnewood’s Hargis-Mitchell-Cochran House and its Moore-Settle House.
Wynnewood is located in southeastern Garvin County. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 3.8km2, all land.[4] The Washita River, a tributary of the Red River, runs just to the west of the city.
The community is at the junction of U.S. Highway 77 and State Highway 29, which links it to Interstate 35 to the west. US 71 leads northwest 9miles to Pauls Valley, the Garvin County seat, and south 10miles to Davis. Highway 29 leads west 3miles to Interstate 35 and east to U.S. Route 177.
As of the census of 2000, there were 2,367 people, 965 households, and 607 families residing in the city. The population density was 1552.3sp=usNaNsp=us. There were 1,104 housing units at an average density of 724/mi2. The racial makeup of the city was 77.27% White, 10.73% African American, 7.77% Native American, 0.17% Asian, 0.68% from other races, and 3.38% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.83% of the population.
There were 965 households, out of which 29.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 44.4% were married couples living together, 15.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.0% were non-families. 33.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 18.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.39 and the average family size was 3.05.
In the city, the population was spread out, with 26.0% under the age of 18, 8.1% from 18 to 24, 24.5% from 25 to 44, 21.2% from 45 to 64, and 20.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females, there were 83.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 74.9 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $26,149, and the median income for a family was $31,856. Males had a median income of $28,929 versus $19,375 for females. The per capita income for the city was $13,539. About 13.6% of families and 15.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 22.8% of those under age 18 and 15.1% of those age 65 or over.
For many years, the local economy was based on agriculture. Principal crops in the early 20th century included pecans, peaches, corn, wheat, oats, alfalfa, cotton and clover. A cottonseed oil company and four cotton gins supported the cotton industry.[5]
The local petroleum industry blossomed in Garvin County during the second decade of the 20th century. The Texas Pacific Coal and Oil Company built an oil refinery in Wynnewood during 1922–23. Kerr-McGee Company bought the refinery in 1950. By 1957, employment at the refinery was about equal to all other employment in the Wynnewood vicinity. The Gary-Williams Energy Corporation bought the facility in 1995.[5] In 2012, noted investor Carl Icahn announced that he had bought a controlling interest in CVR industries, which owned the 70,000 barrel per day refinery (BPD) at Wynnewood and a 115,000 BPD refinery at Coffeyville, Kansas.[8] The Wynnewood refinery was one of only five operating in Oklahoma as of 2015.[9]
The Wynnewood Gazette began publication in 1906, and has continued into the 21st century.[5] The Gazette in 1979 reported a story in nearby Elmore City about whether to allow high school students there to dance at a graduation celebration in the face of a town ordinance prohibiting public dancing; this controversy was picked up by national papers and became the core idea behind the 1984 film Footloose.[10]
Other early newspapers were the Wynnewood Republic and the Wynnewood Times.[5]
Wynnewood is considered to be a high risk for tornadoes, with an average of three such storms annually. One source says that as of August 2016, Wynnewood has had 175 tornadoes since 1950.[11]