Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Services in Strong City, OK

Strong City is a tiny town in Roger Mills County in western Oklahoma, on State Highway 33 about five miles northeast of Cheyenne, the county seat.

Strong City was formally established on June 25, 1912, and named for Clint Strong, a railroad official and entrepreneur instrumental in the town's organization.

Strong City became the terminus of the Clinton and Oklahoma Western Railway in August 1912, and within a year it had grown to about 600 people — the largest town in Roger Mills County, bigger than the county seat itself.

The rivalry was designed into the town plat: Strong City was laid out with a rocky knoll in its center, reserved for the county courthouse in case it could wrest the county seat away from Cheyenne.

Cheyenne answered by building the Cheyenne Short Line Railroad up the Washita River valley to connect with Strong City, and it kept the courthouse — rebuilding it in brick after the original burned in 1914.

Strong City's best census years were 1920 and 1930, with about 350 residents, but in 1934 and 1935 several business houses relocated to Cheyenne and the town shrank rapidly during the Depression.

Strong City's last school closed in 1956 and its post office ceased operation on April 3, 1981; although John W. Morris listed it in his book Ghost Towns of Oklahoma, it continues as an incorporated town.

The 2020 census counted just 33 people in Strong City, living in 11 households — and 45 percent of its 20 housing units stood vacant.

Strong City is essentially surrounded by the Black Kettle National Grassland, with the Black Kettle Recreation Area about 10 miles northwest and the Washita Battlefield National Historic Site about 11 miles southwest.

Local students attend Cheyenne Public Schools, and the town covers just half a square mile near the Washita River.