Biohazard Cleanup Near Downtown Beaver Beaver, OK

Beaver is a town in the Oklahoma Panhandle and the county seat of Beaver County, located on the south bank of the Beaver River, also known as the North Canadian River.

Beaver began as a fur-trading post in 1879 and a stop on the Jones and Plummer Trail, where in 1880 Jim Lane built a house that doubled as a general store, saloon, hotel and restaurant.

Originally named Beaver City, the town became the capital of the self-declared Cimarron Territory in 1886, a territorial government the federal government never recognized.

When the Panhandle was attached to Oklahoma Territory in 1890, Beaver City became the seat of Seventh County, which then covered the entire Oklahoma Panhandle, before Beaver County was carved out at statehood in 1907.

Beaver's Presbyterian Church, built in 1887, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is billed as the oldest church in Oklahoma Territory.

Beaver styles itself the 'Cowchip Throwing Capital of the World' and hosts the annual World Cow Chip Throwing Championship.

Beaver holds Oklahoma's record for snowfall in a single season: 87.3 inches fell there during the winter of 1911-12.

A mile north of town, Beaver Dunes Park preserves sand dunes left behind by the ancient seas that once covered the region.

Unusually for the Dust Bowl era, Beaver actually gained population during the Great Depression, growing from 920 residents in 1920 to 1,028 in 1930 and 1,166 in 1940.

Beaver's population peaked at 2,087 in 1960, and the 2020 census counted 1,280 residents.