Biohazard Cleanup Near McLoud Historic District McLoud, OK

McLoud is a city in northwestern Pottawatomie County, about 29 miles east of Oklahoma City, and it has grown into a bedroom community in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area.

McLoud was founded in 1895, just after the Kickapoo Land Run of May 23, 1895 opened the surrounding land to homesteaders.

The town was named for John W. McLoud, an attorney for the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad; its post office opened in June 1895 spelled 'McCloud' before the spelling was corrected that October.

McLoud incorporated on July 7, 1896, only about a year after its townsite was filed.

The original townsite stood on the North Canadian River, but after a spring flood destroyed it the town was rebuilt on higher ground about a mile to the south.

Early McLoud was notorious for making and selling whiskey to customers from the officially 'dry' Indian Territory just across the river.

In 1949 McLoud was proclaimed the 'Blackberry Capital of the World' after its Chamber of Commerce shipped a crate of blackberries to President Harry S. Truman.

The 2020 census counted 4,351 people in McLoud, spread across one of Oklahoma's more spacious city limits at roughly 18 square miles.

The 2010 census recorded 4,044 residents in about 1,100 households, and the town has continued growing as an agricultural center turned commuter community.

The Oklahoma Department of Corrections operates the Mabel Bassett Correctional Center, the state's prison for women, within McLoud's city limits.