Crime Scene and Trauma Cleanup in Foss, OK

Foss is a small incorporated town in Washita County, Oklahoma, named in honor of J. M. Foss, an early postmaster at nearby Cordell.

Foss began in the late 1890s when settlers near the Wilson post office moved north to Turkey Creek; their first settlement was called Maharg, an anagram of the postmaster's name, Graham.

A flash flood on May 2, 1902 destroyed the original town on Turkey Creek, drowning several people, and the survivors rebuilt Foss on higher ground beside the railroad.

Foss's post office began operation on September 15, 1900, and the town boomed so quickly that by 1905 it held between 900 and 1,000 residents.

By 1912 Foss had two banks, three cotton gins, an electric plant, two hotels, an opera house, and factories making hay balers, baby carriages, and brooms.

Foss's population peaked at 525 in the 1910 census before farm mechanization and larger rail towns like Clinton and Elk City drew its trade away.

U.S. Route 66 passed about half a mile south of Foss, and a wartime U.S. naval base south of town helped sustain it during World War II, but its last bank closed in September 1977.

Foss Reservoir, created by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's Foss Dam completed in 1961, lies about six miles north of town, with Foss State Park on its shore and the Washita National Wildlife Refuge at its north end.

One of the first electrodialysis water treatment plants in the nation was built at Foss Lake to treat its extremely hard mineral water, and a replacement plant built in 2003 was the only one of its kind in Oklahoma.

The 2020 census counted just 101 residents in Foss, making the once-bustling trade center one of Oklahoma's near-ghost towns that is still incorporated.