Crime Scene and Trauma Cleanup in Snyder, OK

Snyder is a city in southern Kiowa County, Oklahoma, at the junction of U.S. Highways 62 and 183, about 28 miles south of Hobart.

Snyder was established in 1902 by Charles G. Jones, president of the Oklahoma City and Western Railroad, who planted the townsite two miles south of Mountain Park after a dispute with that community.

Jones named the new town for Bryan Snyder, an employee of the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway (the Frisco), which ran through the townsite.

On May 10, 1905, an F5 tornado flattened Snyder; the National Weather Service lists an official death toll of 97, making it one of the deadliest tornadoes in Oklahoma history, and the schools' superintendent was among the dead.

Fires in 1906 and 1909 destroyed most of the wooden buildings along Snyder's Main Street, and they were quickly replaced with brick structures.

Snyder's population peaked at 1,848 in 1980 and has declined in every census since.

At the 2020 census, Snyder had 1,301 residents living in 532 households, and about 64% of its occupied homes were owner-occupied.

Snyder's economy depends on farming and ranching, with cotton, corn, wheat, and hay among the important crops.

Great Plains State Park, on the Tom Steed Reservoir, lies about seven miles north of Snyder, and the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge is about 15 miles northeast.