Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Services in Bowlegs, OK

Bowlegs is a small town in Seminole County, Oklahoma, located near State Highway 59 and U.S. Highway 377 about ten miles west of Wewoka, the county seat.

Three theories compete for the origin of Bowlegs' unusual name: place-name historian George Shirk said it honors Seminole Chief Billy Bowlegs, while others say it was named for Lizzie Bowlegs, on whose allotment oil was discovered, or for David Bowlegs — and the town is frequently noted on lists of unusual place names.

Before the oil boom, Bowlegs was a modest settlement with little more than a gristmill and a general store.

When the Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company brought in the area's first oil well in 1926, an estimated 15,000 people came to live in and around Bowlegs almost overnight.

The oil company built the Walker Camp north of town for its workers, complete with houses, barracks, a recreation hall, a hospital, tennis courts, and a playground.

Bowlegs had a rough boomtown reputation, and one of its dance halls was nicknamed the "Bucket of Blood" because of the brawls that broke out there.

Bowlegs got its own post office on April 23, 1927, with Herbert K. Catlett as the first postmaster, and a brick high school was built in 1928-29 to handle the boom's influx of students.

The boom faded fast: by 1946 Bowlegs' population had shrunk to about 105 people.

Bowlegs covers about 3.8 square miles and now functions largely as a rural bedroom community for the surrounding Seminole County oil country.

The Seminole County Commissioners approved Bowlegs' incorporation on July 22, 1975, and the town's first federal census in 1980 counted 522 residents.