Biohazard Cleanup Near Downtown Thomas Thomas, OK

Thomas is a small city in northeastern Custer County in western Oklahoma, at the intersection of State Highways 33 and 47.

Thomas is named for William Thomas, who owned a general store and served as the first postmaster when the town's post office was established at his store on February 12, 1894, in Oklahoma Territory.

The townsite grew out of Joseph W. Morris's homestead, claimed during the Cheyenne-Arapaho Opening of 1892 and platted by the Oklahoma Railway Townsite Company in 1902.

Two railroads built through Thomas - the Blackwell, Enid and Southwestern in 1902 and the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient in 1906 - making it a marketing and shipping point for surrounding farms.

Many of Thomas's early settlers were members of the Amish, the Dunkards, and the Church of the United Brethren in Christ.

The old Western Cattle Trail, also called the Dodge City Trail, crossed the Washita River about 10 miles west of Thomas in the 1870s and 1880s.

Thomas's population peaked at 1,515 in 1980, and the 2020 census counted 1,143 residents.

Thomas's 1,143 residents lived in 461 households in 2020, and about 76 percent of its occupied homes were owner-occupied.

Thomas has evolved from a farm marketing town into a bedroom community: more than 91 percent of its employed residents commute to work in other communities.

The oil refinery at Thomas, opened in 1982 as the Barrett Refinery, was one of only five refineries operating in Oklahoma in 2015 and, at 14,000 barrels per day, the smallest in the state.