Copan, OK

Copan is a Washington County town on U.S. Highway 75 about fourteen miles north of Bartlesville. A Santa Fe railway station arrived in 1899, and the post office and settlement carried several names before Copan became the official name in 1904. The town incorporated in 1906, while the Copan oil field and an early trunk pipeline drove its first major growth. That history is still legible in the town's position along the highway, where the older commercial grid meets roads running toward the lake country west of town.

Hulah Lake was impounded in 1951, and Copan Lake was completed in 1983. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operates the Copan-Hulah project office near Copan Dam on State Highway 10, while the state wildlife department identifies Copan Lake as a fishing and outdoor recreation destination. Today the local map is a combination of U.S. 75, the Caney River country, and lake roads leading toward recreation areas and shorelines. Copan's story moves from railroad and oil to reservoirs, with each layer still visible around the town.