24/7 Trauma & Biohazard Cleanup Near West Wainwright Wainwright, OK

Wainwright is a small town in western Muskogee County, Oklahoma, named for William Henry Wainwright, a local merchant.

Wainwright's first post office was established in 1905, with Gretta M. Somerville serving as its first postmaster.

The Missouri, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad reached Wainwright before Oklahoma statehood in 1907 and stimulated the young town's early growth.

By 1913–14 Wainwright had grown to roughly 500 people and supported Baptist, Christian and Methodist churches.

The Middleton family's cattle ranch near Wainwright was one of the largest cattle operations in eastern Oklahoma in the town's early years.

Wainwright's first federal census, in 1910, counted 213 people, and the town peaked at 254 residents in the 1920 census.

Drought and low farm prices after World War I sent Wainwright into a long decline from which it never recovered.

Wainwright covers just 0.29 square miles and is drained by Anderson Creek, a tributary flowing southeast toward the Arkansas River below Webbers Falls.

Wainwright lies 17 miles southwest of Muskogee, the county seat, and 12 miles north of Checotah.

The 2020 census counted only 93 people in Wainwright — down sharply from 165 in 2010 — living in just 29 households, with a median age of 48.3 years.