Rush Springs, OK

Rush Springs is a Grady County town in south-central Oklahoma, with 997 residents in the 2020 census. U.S. 81 runs through the community, about nineteen miles south of Chickasha and twenty miles north of Duncan. The town sits in rolling Redbed Plains near Rush Creek, on country crossed by cattle routes and old rail lines. Water and transportation both sit in the name: the springs drew travelers and herds, then the railroad helped turn the stop into a town.

The Rush Springs Watermelon Festival has been an annual event since 1948, growing from a 1940 picnic into a day that can bring tens of thousands of visitors. Free watermelon, seed-spitting contests, a rodeo, a carnival, a run, and local groups’ booths fill the summer calendar. Before the festival, the Chisholm Trail passed east of town, and cattlemen used nearby springs while moving herds north from Texas toward Kansas railheads. Rush Springs is an Oklahoma town where a spring, a cattle trail, a rail corridor, and the state’s most recognizable watermelon celebration meet.