Crescent

History

Crescent was formed with the Indian Appropriations Act of 1889 on March 2, 1889, and officially started that fall when William Brown began selling general merchandise out of a wagon. Soon he took on a partner, Benjamin Ryland, and the two moved into a log cabin. A post office christened "Crescent City" was established on February 21, 1890, the name taken from a moon-shaped glade where the town began. In November 1891 the town site was platted, and incorporated in 1893. The Denver, Enid and Gulf Railroad laid track one mile (1.6 km) west of the city in 1902, and the city obtained of land from two farmers (C. E. Wells and J. H. Rhoades) creating "new Crescent" or "West Crescent"; eventually the town moved to the new location. Oil was discovered north of town in 1926 and then south of town in 1930 in the "Crescent Oil Field". On June 20, 1934 the Farmers and Merchants Bank was robbed by a group of men. The group took 13 hostages to help conceal the attempt and to help move the safe. They had the hostages load the safe into the back of a truck and drove the hostages and safe out of town. They ended up leaving both behind, hostages unhurt and safe unopened. In 1965 the Cimarron Processing Facility was opened by Kerr-McGee (owned through a subsidiary, Kerr-McGee Nuclear Corp.) to convert powdered uranium hexafluoride and plutonium into fuel pellets for use in the nation's nuclear power plants. The site became the center of highly controversial revelations within the petrochemical industry, when in the early 1970s, working conditions and manufacturing practices at the facility became dangerous. The 1983 Oscar-nominated film Silkwood, based around Karen Silkwood (who became contaminated) and her death (in 1974), is a movie about those revelations. In 1976 the…

Geography

Crescent is northwest of Guthrie, the county seat.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  432
• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  387
• Carolina Chickadee

  Poecile carolinensis (Audubon, 1834) · Aves
  254
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  248
• European Starling

  Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  234
• Turkey Vulture

  Cathartes aura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  224
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  212
• Red-tailed Hawk

  Buteo jamaicensis (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  205

Most recent

• M 2.57 — 2026-09-14
  6 km E of Calumet, Oklahoma
• M 2.9 — 2026-09-11
  5 km N of Stroud, Oklahoma
• M 2.56 — 2026-06-13
  6 km ENE of Edmond, Oklahoma
• M 2.72 — 2026-06-03
  7 km S of Perry, Oklahoma
• M 2.9 — 2026-05-22
  10 km N of Stillwater, Oklahoma
• M 2.7 — 2026-05-20
  5 km N of Stroud, Oklahoma