Oswego

History

Oswego is located on the site of an Osage village called No tse Wa spe, which means "Heart Stays" or more loosely translated, "Quiet Heart." Jesuit Missionaries from Osage Mission (now St. Paul, Kansas) who worked among the Osages called the village "Little Town," probably because the band of Osages who lived in the village were of the "Little Osage" division of the Osage People. More specifically, the Osage Village of Little Town was described as "Little Town Above" by the Jesuits, to distinguish it from another village, which was sometimes located just to the east of Little Town, called "Little Town Below." While Osage villages were moved quite often (according to weather, hunting conditions, and sanitary conditions) Little Town Above was generally located on the bluff overlooking the Neosho River, where Oswego sits today. Little Town Below often sat near Horseshoe Lake, in the Neosho River Valley about a mile due east of Oswego. During the 1850s, Little Town was often referred to as "White Hair's Town," in honor of a resident of the village named Iron Hawk. A study of the baptismal records of the Jesuits at Osage Mission reveals that several white or mixed white and Osage families lived in or near Little Town before the Civil War. Several mixed white and Cherokee families also lived in or near the present site of Little Town, likely just east of the village in the Cherokee Neutral Lands or to the south, near Chetopa. One family of mixed Osage blood that lived at Little Town before the Civil War was the John Allen Mathews family, who operated a blacksmith/gunsmith shop on the site and ran a trading post here, as well as one at Osage Mission and one at Fort Gibson. Mathews first purchased the trading post at Little Town from Augustus Chouteau in either 1838 or…

Geography

Oswego is located approximately north of the Oklahoma state line and west of the Missouri line. It is situated along the southern bluffs overlooking the Neosho River valley at the junction of U.S. Route 59 and U.S. Route 160. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water. The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Oswego has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  902
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  620
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  582
• Red-bellied Woodpecker

  Melanerpes carolinus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  502
• Carolina Chickadee

  Poecile carolinensis (Audubon, 1834) · Aves
  452
• Tufted Titmouse

  Baeolophus bicolor (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  438
• Turkey Vulture

  Cathartes aura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  403
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  363

Most recent

• M 2.5 — 2025-12-26
  5 km SSW of Peru, Kansas
• M 2.82 — 2024-03-23
  9 km SE of Foyil, Oklahoma
• M 2.7 — 2016-01-14
  7 km W of Talala, Oklahoma
• M 3 — 2014-10-01
  9 km SSW of Galesburg, Kansas