Woodward

History

For thousands of years, succeeding cultures of indigenous peoples inhabited the areas along the North Canadian River. The Plains tribes adopted use of the horse from the Spanish settlers in the 17th and 18th centuries, which greatly increased their range of nomadic hunting. Before the American Civil War, the historic Plains tribes of the Kiowa, Comanche, Apache, Cheyenne, and Arapaho occupied this area. Boiling Springs, near present-day Woodward, was a favorite campsite of the Plains Indians. A battle between the Kiowa and Cheyenne tribes took place nearby in 1838. In the late 19th century, these tribes fought numerous battles against the United States soldiers and settlers through a wide area around the springs. After the war, United States Army made various expeditions against the Plains tribes in the Cherokee Outlet. Lieutenant Colonels Alfred Sully and George Armstrong Custer, and General Philip Sheridan, stationed nearby at Fort Supply, led these expeditions. In the 1880s, the Comanche considered this area as part of their "Comancheria", the unofficial name of their territory, which stretched from Kansas to Mexico. European-American settlers established Woodward at this junction. The source of the name of the town a mystery. People perhaps named the town for Brinton W. Woodward, usually identified as a Santa Fe Railway director, or bison hunter, teamster, and eventually local saddle-maker Richard "Uncle Dick" Woodward. The town quickly developed as an important shipping point, both for provisioning Fort Supply and as a place for loading cattle grazed in the Cherokee Outlet for shipment to eastern markets. Woodward ranked among the most important depots in the Oklahoma Territory for shipping cattle to the Eastern and Northern states. The Great Western Cattle…

Geography

Woodward is located in northwestern Oklahoma, on the eastern edge of the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles. As the largest city in an area of nine counties, it is a commercial hub in northwestern Oklahoma. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and (0.53%) is water.

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• WOODWARD HS
  High · Woodward · 708 students · 17.3:1 ratio
• WOODWARD MS SOUTH CAMPUS
  Middle · Woodward · 378 students · 17.2:1 ratio
• WOODWARD MS NORTH CAMPUS
  Middle · Woodward · 370 students · 18.5:1 ratio
• WOODWARD EC CTR
  Elementary · Woodward · 320 students · 15.2:1 ratio
• CEDAR HEIGHTS ES
  Elementary · Woodward · 265 students · 16.6:1 ratio
• HORACE MANN ES
  Elementary · Woodward · 240 students · 17.1:1 ratio
• HIGHLAND PARK ES
  Elementary · Woodward · 227 students · 16.2:1 ratio