Biohazard Cleanup Near South Dibble Dibble, OK

Dibble is a town in western McClain County named for brothers John and James Dibble, whose ranch on the Fort Smith to Fort Sill military road served as a stopping point for soldiers and travelers.

For much of the 19th century the Dibble townsite lay within Pontotoc County of the Chickasaw Nation, and the village may have existed as early as 1869.

A Dibble post office was designated in 1894 with Horatio Orem as postmaster, and J. T. Payne platted the townsite in 1902, with the land withheld from the Chickasaw allotment process.

Dibble's school system was first established in 1907, and in 1937 — the same year the town finally incorporated — the completion of State Highway 39 let the district annex outlying rural schools.

Dibble stayed tiny for most of its history, counting just 97 residents in 1940 and 148 in 1950, before suburban growth from Oklahoma City pushed it to 289 in 2000 and 878 in 2010.

The 2020 census counted 867 people in Dibble, which sits in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area about 17 miles west of Purcell, the McClain County seat, and southwest of Norman.

Although fewer than 900 people live inside Dibble's town limits, its ZIP code area is home to nearly 9,000 residents in the surrounding countryside.