Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Woodson, TX

Woodson is a small town in southeastern Throckmorton County, first settled in 1875 by J.O. Wood and Henry McClintick.

The community was originally called Jom, after a cotton gin built so local ranchers could get cottonseed to feed their cattle.

Woodson's name comes from "Wood and Son," honoring J.O. Wood and his son O.J. Wood, who built the town's first schoolhouse and gave away free lots to anyone who would build a home there.

Woodson boomed during the oil era, reaching an all-time high of about 2,800 residents in the 1920s, when it had three gasoline service stations, two cotton gins, two barber shops, a lumber yard, a movie theater, and a Chevrolet dealer.

Oil was first discovered near Woodson in 1923, and the Stubblefield #1 well drilled by Texaco in 1925 produced more than 1,000,000 barrels of oil and was still producing in 2010.

On March 23, 1945, a rancher found a Japanese balloon bomb in a field on the Barney Davis Ranch about 8 miles north of Woodson - one of roughly 360 of the more than 9,000 hydrogen-filled balloon bombs Japan launched that were eventually found in North America.

A tornado hit Woodson in 1948 and destroyed 32 houses, the only tornado ever recorded to strike the town.

Woodson's population has fallen steadily since its oil-boom peak - the 2020 census counted just 219 residents, down from 264 in 2010.

Public education in Woodson is provided by the Woodson Independent School District, home of the Cowboys and Cowgirls, which enrolled just 149 students from prekindergarten through 12th grade in 2016.