Biohazard Cleanup Near West Grayson Grayson, OK

Grayson is a town in southeastern Okmulgee County that began under the name Wildcat and is counted by the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture as one of Oklahoma's more than fifty historic all-Black towns founded between 1865 and 1920.

Grayson was named for George W. Grayson, a chief of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and although its post office took the Grayson name when it opened on February 10, 1902, the town's legal name remained Wildcat into the 1960s.

Grayson had 375 residents at Oklahoma statehood in 1907 and peaked at 411 people in the 1910 census.

By 1909 the small farming community supported five general stores, two blacksmith shops, two drug stores, a physician, and a cotton gin.

Grayson originally lay in McIntosh County, but a 1918 realignment of the McIntosh-Okmulgee county line moved the town into Okmulgee County.

Grayson sits at the junction of U.S. Highway 266 in the Deep Fork River country, about eleven miles southeast of the county seat of Okmulgee and eight miles northeast of Henryetta.

Grayson's historic town jail is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Grayson's post office, opened in 1902, was discontinued on April 30, 1929, and residents have since shared the Henryetta ZIP code.

The 2020 census counted 127 residents in Grayson, down from 159 in 2010, making it one of the smallest surviving historic all-Black towns in Oklahoma.