Biohazard Cleanup Near Colbert Historic District Colbert, OK

Colbert is a town in southern Bryan County on U.S. Highway 69/75 near the Red River, once a primary gateway into Oklahoma from Texas.

The town is named for Benjamin Franklin Colbert of the prominent Chickasaw Colbert family, who moved to the area in 1848 and built a home on the Red River.

In 1853, Colbert secured permission from the Chickasaw Nation to operate a ferry across the Red River, and Colbert's Ferry became an important crossing on the Texas Road between Texas and Indian Territory.

In 1858 the community became a stop on the Butterfield Overland Mail route, and Colbert transported the stagecoaches and their passengers across the river free of charge.

A toll bridge completed at the ferry site in 1892 replaced the ferry, but the bridge was destroyed by a flood in 1908.

The Colbert's Ferry site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, added in 1972.

The town of Colbert was incorporated in 1939.

Colbert had 1,027 residents at the 2020 census, living in 423 households, with a median age of 45.8 years.

Colbert's population peaked at 1,140 in 2010 before declining about 10% by 2020.

Colbert covers about 1.1 square miles, all of it land, and every one of its residents was classified as rural in the 2020 census.