Wilson, OK

Wilson is a Carter County town about 17 miles west of Ardmore, with US 70 passing north of the built-up center. Its origin is pure railroad Oklahoma: in 1913 John Ringling built the Oklahoma, New Mexico and Pacific Railway west from Ardmore to this spot and first called it New Wilson, honoring Charles Wilson, a Ringling Brothers Circus manager. A post office opened in January 1914, the town incorporated that year, and the name shortened to Wilson in 1918.

Oil-field history sits just north of town. The Healdton Oil Field Bunkhouse is listed on the National Register, a reminder that Wilson's rail line served the boom around Healdton as well as local residents. Wilson Assembly of God, founded in 1922, is one of Oklahoma's oldest Assemblies of God churches. US 70 points east to Ardmore and west to Waurika, while the town center stays south of the highway. The local scoop is a Ringling railroad town that kept its oil-field neighbors and church history in the same frame.