Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Weleetka, OK

Weleetka is a town in Okfuskee County, Oklahoma, about 10 miles southeast of the county seat, Okemah, and its name is a Creek (Muscogee) word meaning "running water."

Weleetka was founded by three struggling newspapermen — George F. Clarke of Vinita, Lake Moore of Fairland and John Jacobs of Holdenville — who in 1899 decided to plant a new town where the Frisco and Fort Smith and Western railroads would cross.

The partners bought the site on a hill north of the North Canadian River from Martha Lowe, a Creek allottee, and began selling town lots for $40 each on February 10, 1902; the First Bank of Weleetka opened the next day and the post office followed on March 14, 1902.

Weleetka became the division point of the Fort Smith and Western Railway, where all train crews changed and the railroad kept major steam-locomotive shops and repair facilities, making the railroad the town's biggest employer until it shut down on February 9, 1939.

Weleetka boomed with farming and later oil and gas, reaching its peak population of 2,042 in 1930, when it had two hotels, three cotton gins, a cotton compress, three drug stores and an opera house.

The town's weekly newspaper, the Weleetka American, published from 1902 to 1975, and the historic Weleetka Town Hall and Jail are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The 2020 census counted 806 people in Weleetka in 292 households, with a median age of 47.8 years — one of the older-skewing small towns in the region.

About 29% of Weleetka's residents were Native American in the 2020 census, reflecting the town's location in the historic Creek Nation.

Weleetka's townsite sits on a horseshoe bend of the North Canadian River, and a bank has occupied the same 1902 building on its main street ever since the town's first year.

Country singer Amber Hayes is a Weleetka native.