Crime Scene & Biohazard Cleanup Near Downtown Soper Soper, OK

Soper is a town in southwestern Choctaw County, Oklahoma, on U.S. Highway 70 about 11 miles west of Hugo, the county seat.

Soper sprang up in 1902 when the Arkansas and Choctaw Railway built its line through southern Choctaw County, and it was named for Pliny L. Soper, an attorney for the railroad.

Soper's post office was established on April 12, 1903, and by January 1, 1907, the town had its first newspaper, the Soper Herald.

At its founding, Soper lay in Kiamitia County, one of the counties of the Apukshunnubbee District of the Choctaw Nation.

Soper had 296 residents at Oklahoma statehood in 1907 and peaked at 538 in the 1920 census; the 2020 census counted 225 people in 102 households.

More than one in five Soper residents — 21.8 percent in the 2020 census — are Native American, reflecting the town's location in the Choctaw Nation.

The Soper High School baseball team reached the state tournament many times, finishing runner-up in its debut in fall 1992 and finally winning the state championship in spring 2009.

Rodeo legend Freckles Brown, famous for riding the supposedly unrideable bull Tornado in 1967, owned and lived on a ranch near Soper.

Texas country singer-songwriter Ray Wylie Hubbard hails from Soper.

Soper packs its community into just 0.27 square miles and still supports a volunteer fire department, a gas station and market, and its own public school system, which absorbed students from surrounding communities like Buckhorn, Bluff, Gay, Nelson and Sugar Creek as their small districts closed.