Home |  PublicationsEncyclopedia |  Springer

The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

Springer's U.S. Post Office, circa 1959
(22193.21, Oklahoma Historical Society Photograph Collection, OHS).

SPRINGER.

An incorporated community in northern Carter County, Springer is located on U.S. Highway 77, ten miles north of Ardmore and eighty-seven miles southeast of Oklahoma City. Other nearby towns include Gene Autry, Dougherty, and Lone Grove. Springer covers a land area of 14.4 square miles. The Springer post office, established on September 1, 1890, was named for pioneer cattle rancher W. A. Springer.

Springer's first store, probably established by Jim Rushing, was located east of town along Buzzard Creek. An early-day farmer Fox began working the land near Springer at the edge of the Arbuckle Mountains. On Friday, September 16, 1910, Springer almost became a town in name only. That evening a fire started in the post office. When townspeople and fire fighters saw their town threatened, they used dynamite to stop the conflagration. Before the flames were extinguished, many Main Street businesses were destroyed, including the post office, a general store, a blacksmith shop, and a building used by the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) and other fraternal orders.

Among the businesses listed at Springer in 1911 were the Arnold's Hotel and the general stores of J. M. Arnold and D. M. Sellers and Company. The nearest railroad was the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway at Berwyn (present Gene Autry), six miles east of town. By 1923 there were a few stores, a post office, and the Springer public school, which was built about the time of statehood in 1907.

Early-day Springer was a farming town inhabited by some of the pioneer families of Carter County. Like other rural communities, Springer declined over the years. The town had an approximate population of 175 in 1901 and of 225 circa 1910. U.S. Census information for Springer was not available until 1960 when the count stood at 212 residents. That number dropped from 679 in 1980 to 485 in 1990, but increased to 577 in 2000. The Springer schools remained active into the twenty-first century, as did the post office, a few stores, several churches, and area ranches and farms. In the 2010 census Springer was found to have 700 residents. The April 2020 census reported 687. The town has had no known newspaper.

Greater Southwest Historical Museum and Carter County Genealogy Society

Browse By Topic

Urban Development

Explore

Place
Town

Learn More

Daily Ardmoreite (Ardmore, Oklahoma), 18 September 1910.

Eli Roberts Interview, "Indian-Pioneer History," 52: 358–359, Research Division, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City.

"Springer," Vertical File, Research Division, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City.

Kate Galt Zaneis, Journal of Carter County Schools (Ardmore, Okla.: Privately printed, 1923).

Citation

The following (as per The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition) is the preferred citation for articles:
Greater Southwest Historical Museum and Carter County Genealogy Society, “Springer,” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=SP015.

Published January 15, 2010
Last updated March 29, 2024

Copyright and Terms of Use

No part of this site may be construed as in the public domain.

Copyright to all articles and other content in the online and print versions of The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History is held by the Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS). This includes individual articles (copyright to OHS by author assignment) and corporately (as a complete body of work), including web design, graphics, searching functions, and listing/browsing methods. Copyright to all of these materials is protected under United States and International law.

Users agree not to download, copy, modify, sell, lease, rent, reprint, or otherwise distribute these materials, or to link to these materials on another web site, without authorization of the Oklahoma Historical Society. Individual users must determine if their use of the Materials falls under United States copyright law's "Fair Use" guidelines and does not infringe on the proprietary rights of the Oklahoma Historical Society as the legal copyright holder of The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and part or in whole.