Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Wilson, OK

Wilson is a town in Carter County in south-central Oklahoma, sitting just south of U.S. Highway 70 about 17 miles west of Ardmore, the county seat.

Wilson owes its existence to the circus: in 1913 John Ringling, of Ringling Brothers fame, built his Oklahoma, New Mexico and Pacific Railway west from Ardmore to the spot that became Wilson.

Ringling personally chose the town's original name, New Wilson, as a tribute to Charles Wilson, manager of the Ringling Brothers Circus.

Wilson's post office was established on January 17, 1914, the town voted to incorporate that same year, and the name was shortened from New Wilson to Wilson in 1918.

Wilson boomed so quickly that by January 1914 it was being called the 'Wonder City of Carter County,' with two hotels, a newspaper, telegraph service, oil supply houses and a population already estimated at 1,500 to 2,000.

Wilson's population peaked at 2,517 in the 1930 census, during its oil-boom years, and it served as a trading center for the smaller communities of western Carter County.

The 2020 census counted 1,399 people in Wilson, down about 19 percent from 1,724 in 2010, spread across about 5.7 square miles that the Census Bureau classifies as entirely rural.

Wilson's 1,399 residents lived in 581 households in 2020, and about 70 percent of its occupied homes were owner-occupied.

Wilson is home to one of the oldest Assemblies of God churches in Oklahoma, the Wilson Assembly of God Church.

The Wilson Historical Museum opened in November 2001 in a renovated mid-1920s building, preserving over a thousand photographs, artifacts and newspapers dating from 1915 onward.