Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Chelsea, OK

Chelsea is a town in Rogers County in northeastern Oklahoma, at the junction of State Highway 28 and historic Route 66, about 19 miles northeast of Claremore.

Chelsea began in 1881 as a stop on the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad and was named by railroad official Charles Peach for his native Chelsea district of London, England.

Chelsea incorporated as a town under the laws of the Cherokee Nation in 1889 — 18 years before Oklahoma statehood — and was surveyed and platted by the United States Townsite Commission in 1902.

Chelsea's Bank of Chelsea, which opened in March 1896, is reported to have been the first state bank in Indian Territory, and it still operates on Main Street today as the Bank of Commerce.

Chelsea claims one of Oklahoma's very first oil wells: the United States Oil and Gas Company drilled near town in 1889 and completed a well on Spencer Creek in 1890 that produced half a barrel a day from a depth of just 36 feet.

Chelsea was the center of the Chelsea-Alluwe Oil Field, which boomed in the early 1900s, peaked around 1916 and played out by the early 1920s.

Chelsea's population was 1,991 in the 2020 census, in about 781 households, and about 23% of its residents are Native American, reflecting the town's Cherokee Nation roots.

Chelsea educated a legend — humorist Will Rogers attended a subscription school on Cherokee land in Chelsea as a boy.

Chelsea High School's Green Dragons won state championships in boys track in 1998 and softball in 2007, and the school produced Ralph Terry, the New York Yankees pitcher who was MVP of the 1962 World Series.

Chelsea's Route 66 heritage survives in three National Register of Historic Places listings: the Chelsea Motel, the Hogue House and the Pryor Creek Bridge.