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Oklahoma County
Stephens County, Oklahoma
Halliburton's Duncan birthplace and the Chisholm Trail heritage - from Duncan's distinction as the birthplace of Halliburton (Erle P. Halliburton founded his oil well cementing company in Duncan in 1919 - the company that became one of the world's largest oil field services corporations began in a south-central Oklahoma oil patch town, and Halliburton's early history is documented in the Chisholm Trail Heritage Center) to the Chisholm Trail Heritage Center in Duncan (one of the finest Western heritage museums in Oklahoma, documenting the legendary cattle driving route that passed through the county) and Stephens County's oil production heritage.
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Office: Stephens County Emergency Management – 101 S 11th St Rm 108, Duncan, OK 73533 | (580) 255-3411
Related: City of Duncan Emergency Preparedness – coordinated by the same office; Duncan Fire/Police non-emergency dispatch handles animal control calls.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: US-81 and US-70 serve Duncan, the county seat, in south-central Oklahoma about 80 miles south of Oklahoma City
Transit: Limited; primarily auto-dependent – confirm current regional options directly with the county.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: City of Duncan Building/Permits Department – contact via duncanok.gov
Notes: Stephens County Assessor and Clerk handle unincorporated-area records. Marlow and other towns issue their own in-town permits.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
County VSO: Stephens County Veterans Service Officer – Stephens County Courthouse, Duncan, OK
Libraries
LIBRARIES
System: Duncan Public Library – 2211 North Highway 81, Duncan, OK 73533 | (580) 255-0636 | Hours: Mon–Sat 9 AM–6 PM (closed Sun)
Services: Genuinely founded in 1921; free library cards for Stephens County residents ($25/family fee for residents of adjacent counties); over 47,000 volumes circulating more than 165,000 items a year; interlibrary loan, 24-hour parking-lot WiFi, public computers, free Ancestry.com access, seed library, free GED pretesting; operates the Stephens County Genealogy Library branch, staffed by a dedicated genealogy specialist.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: Stephens County’s seat, Duncan, is genuinely the birthplace of the Halliburton Corporation, one of the largest oilfield services companies in the world; founder Erle P. Halliburton started his oil-well cementing business there in 1919, developing an initially untested cementing process that transformed how oil wells were drilled and completed – although Halliburton’s corporate headquarters relocated to Dallas in 1961, the company has maintained a manufacturing and technology presence in Duncan ever since, and at its mid-1950s peak the local plant employed 1,750 people, a full quarter of the city’s working population; a historical marker and statue honoring Halliburton stand in the city’s Centennial/Memorial Park; Duncan also carries deep roots in the cattle-drive era of the American West – the historic Chisholm Trail, which carried millions of Texas Longhorn cattle north to Kansas railheads in the decades after the Civil War, passed directly through the area just east of where Duncan would later be founded in 1892 by trader William Duncan; today, the Chisholm Trail Heritage Center genuinely preserves this history with an immersive 4D Experience Theater, the Garis Gallery of the American West, and Paul Moore’s monumental bronze sculpture “On the Chisholm Trail,” standing nearly 15 feet tall and stretching almost 35 feet across; visitors can also see actual visible wagon and cattle-hoof ruts from the historic trail preserved nearby at Trail Ruts at Monument Hill
Notes: Duncan’s genuine dual identity as the real birthplace of Halliburton and a living piece of Chisholm Trail cattle-drive history makes Stephens County one of the more industrially and culturally significant counties found anywhere in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
GIS Portal: Stephens County GIS – accessible via stephenscountyok.com
Parcel Search: Stephens County Assessor – Duncan, OK
Addressing/911: Coordinated through Stephens County Emergency Management
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Facility: City of Duncan Animal Control – (580) 252-6608 (lost/found line)
Services: Enforces animal registration/rabies ordinances within city limits; adoptable dogs not claimed within a 72-hour hold are transferred to the Stephens County Humane Society.
Related: Stephens County Humane Society – 714 W Martin Luther King Ave, Duncan, OK 73533, (580) 252-7387, incorporated 1983, a private nonprofit no-kill shelter caring for over 1,200 animals annually.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Environmental Complaints: Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) – deq.ok.gov
Notes: Contact your specific municipality directly for current refuse collection and recycling program details. Fuqua Lake and Clear Creek Lake offer local recreation.
NOTES
Duncan, Stephens County’s seat, is genuinely the birthplace of the Halliburton Corporation and preserves real, visible ruts left by cattle drives along the historic Chisholm Trail. All contact information above was sourced from official county, city, library, and shelter pages as of this writing; phone numbers and hours should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit.
About Stephens County
Stephens County is south-central Oklahoma’s Halliburton birthplace and Chisholm Trail county – a community where one of the world’s largest oil services corporations was founded and one of the West’s great cattle trails passed.
Duncan (the county seat, population ~23,000) is where Erle P. Halliburton founded his oil well cementing company in 1919 – a specialized service to the rapidly expanding Oklahoma oil industry that grew into Halliburton Company, a global oil field services giant. The Chisholm Trail Heritage Center provides an outstanding cultural and historical experience documenting the cattle drives that shaped Oklahoma’s early economy.
Marlow (population ~4,500) to the north has its own Chisholm Trail connections and serves the county’s agricultural communities.
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Stephens County Assessor at 101 S. 11th Street, Suite 300, Duncan, OK 73533, phone 580-255-0745. OK homestead assessed at 11% of fair cash value. Appeal to Board of Equalization.
Courts & Legal
Stephens County District Court at 101 S. 11th Street, Duncan, OK 73533, phone 580-255-0977, handles probate.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
COUNTY CLERK
101 South 11th St, Duncan, OK 73533
(580) 255-0977
COURT CLERK
101 South 11th St, Duncan, OK 73533
(580) 255-0977
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Stephens County District Court, Duncan (probate/estate case files – see Probate section above).
Duncan lies along the historic Chisholm Trail.
Local societies
No dedicated Stephens County genealogical society was confirmed in available directories.
Probate & Estate
Losing someone and having to deal with courts and paperwork at the same time is hard. This section won’t make that easier, but it should tell you what to expect, what it costs, and where to go – so at least you’re not walking in blind.
Where to go
Stephens County District Court 101 South 11th Street, Suite 301, Duncan, OK 73533 (580) 470-2000
Stephens County was created at statehood in 1907, partly from the Chickasaw Nation and partly from Comanche County, in southwestern Oklahoma, seated in Duncan.
Step 1: figure out which path applies
Oklahoma has NOT adopted the Uniform Probate Code, maintaining its own probate statutes under Title 58 of the Oklahoma Statutes. Probate cases are handled by the District Court in each of Oklahoma’s 77 counties.
Small Estate Affidavit (58 O.S. § 393) – available when the total value of probate personal property (not counting real estate) is $50,000 or less. At least 10 days must have passed since death. This process skips court entirely: the affidavit is signed, notarized, and presented directly to whoever holds the asset (a bank, for example), along with a certified death certificate. Real estate can never be transferred this way – even a small estate with real property still needs some form of court proceeding.
Summary Administration – available when the total probate estate does not exceed $200,000, or when the decedent has been dead more than 5 years, or lived outside Oklahoma. This is an abbreviated form of probate – still court-supervised, but faster and less expensive than full administration.
Regular (Full) Administration – the standard court-supervised process, required for larger or more complex estates, or wherever real property is involved and the shortcuts above don’t apply. A personal representative (executor or administrator) is formally appointed by the court.
Step 2: filing for administration
A Petition for Probate is filed in the District Court of the county where the decedent resided; if there’s a will, the original is filed with the petition.
The court sets a hearing date and requires notice be given to heirs and interested parties.
The court appoints a personal representative (executor if named in a will, administrator if intestate) and issues Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration.
Creditors are notified; claims against the estate must be presented within the statutory period.
The personal representative inventories assets, pays valid debts and taxes, and distributes what remains according to the will or Oklahoma’s intestacy laws.
The estate is closed once a final accounting is filed and approved by the court.
What it costs
Filing fees vary by county – check with Stephens County directly for current fees.
Oklahoma has a statutory attorney fee schedule for probate, which provides more predictability than states without one.
No state estate tax, no state inheritance tax. Only the federal estate tax could apply, and only to very large estates.
Probate filings, estate administration, and guardianship matters are handled by the following office(s):
Public Safety & Arrests
Arrest records, inmate search, and law enforcement services are handled by the following office(s):
SHERIFF
101 South 11th St, Duncan, OK 73533
(580) 255-0979
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
ELECTION BOARD
101 South 11th St, Duncan, OK 73533
(580) 255-0980
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Health Department
1200 South 8th St, Duncan, OK 73533
(580) 255-4038
Department of Human Services
1602 North Highway 81, Duncan, OK 73533
(580) 255-9100
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: Stephens County Health Department – Duncan, OK
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County Facts
County Seat: Duncan
Population: 43,000
Established: 1907
Tier: 3
Public Records
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