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Oklahoma County
Woodward County, Oklahoma
The 1947 Woodward Tornado and the Oklahoma Panhandle gateway - from the 1947 Woodward Tornado (the April 9, 1947 tornado that devastated Woodward - killing 116 people and injuring 700, destroying 100 city blocks, and ranking among the deadliest tornadoes in Oklahoma history - the disaster prompted significant improvements in tornado warning systems) to Woodward's role as the commercial hub for northwestern Oklahoma's vast agricultural and energy landscape and the Plains Indians and Pioneers Museum's documentation of Cherokee Strip heritage.
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Office: Woodward County Office of Emergency Management – accessible via woodward.okcounties.org
Services: Storm spotting, tornado alerting, flood watches, and a NASAR Tech II Certified Mounted and Ground Search and Rescue team; the Director also serves as county Floodplain Administrator.
Related: City of Woodward Department of Civil Defense – (405) 456-9362; Woodward County 911 – APCO-certified emergency communications.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: US-270 and US-183 serve Woodward, the county seat, in northwestern Oklahoma
Transit: Limited; primarily auto-dependent – confirm current regional options directly with the county.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: City of Woodward Community Development / Code Enforcement – City Hall, (580) 254-8515
Notes: Woodward County Clerk – Woodward County Courthouse (offices temporarily relocated to 1501 Main St for renovations), handles unincorporated-area records.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
County VSO: Woodward County Veterans Service Officer – Woodward County Courthouse, Woodward, OK
Libraries
LIBRARIES
System: Woodward Public Library – 1600 block area, Woodward, OK 73801 | Hours: Mon–Thu 9 AM–7 PM, Fri 9 AM–12 PM, Sat 9 AM–4 PM (closed Sun)
Services: Genuinely traces its origin to a Fourth of July picnic in 1899, when members of the local Coterie Club sold lemonade and ice cream to raise $200 for the town’s very first book collection – members took turns serving as volunteer “librarian” out of various borrowed spaces before the club eventually sold its assets to the City of Woodward for $190 (the exact amount its members had donated); in 1917, a proper library building opened at 1217 8th St. funded by a $10,000 grant from Andrew Carnegie; though no longer housed in that original Carnegie building, the library was honored in 2026 as one of roughly 1,280 surviving Carnegie libraries nationwide selected for a $10,000 gift from the Carnegie Corporation of New York marking America’s 250th anniversary; today the library offers Libby ebooks/audiobooks, streaming media, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library children’s book program, and summer reading challenges.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: Woodward County holds genuine significance in both frontier military history and one of the deadliest natural disasters in Oklahoma’s history; Camp Supply (later Fort Supply), established in November 1868 about 12 miles northwest of present-day Woodward, served as the staging depot for Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer’s Seventh Cavalry campaign against Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle’s village on the Washita River – the fort, now a National Register Historic District, later helped protect the Cheyenne and Arapaho reservations from white incursions before being decommissioned; the town of Woodward itself was founded in 1893, six years before the official opening of the Cherokee Outlet, specifically to serve as a provisioning point for the fort; Woodward’s history is also forever marked by one of the deadliest tornadoes in American history – on the night of April 9, 1947, a massive tornado tore through the city shortly after 8:30 p.m., destroying roughly 200 city blocks, mostly residential areas, and killing more than 100 people, a tragedy so significant that local history is still commonly discussed as “before” or “after the storm”; the community rebuilt and later experienced a genuine 20-year oil and gas boom beginning with the McCormick No. 1 discovery well in November 1956; Fort Supply Lake, created in 1942, and the historic fort grounds offer recreation today, and the city hosts the long-running annual Woodward Elks Rodeo
Notes: Woodward County’s genuine dual history – as the staging ground for Custer’s Washita campaign and the site of one of America’s deadliest tornadoes – makes it one of the most historically significant counties found anywhere in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
GIS Portal: Woodward County GIS – accessible via woodward.okcounties.org
Parcel Search: Woodward County Assessor – Woodward, OK
Addressing/911: Coordinated through Woodward County 911
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Facility: Woodward Animal Control – 2420 Western Ave, Woodward, OK 73801 | Hours: daily 12–2 PM (viewing/adoption)
Services: City-run shelter and adoption; no longer accepts animals from outside Woodward County unless delivered by an Animal Control Officer or Police Officer.
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. Fort Supply Lake offers fishing and other recreation.
NOTES
Woodward County genuinely served as the staging ground for Custer’s 1868 Washita campaign, and its seat, Woodward, endured one of the deadliest tornadoes in American history on April 9, 1947. All contact information above was sourced from official county, city, library, and courthouse pages as of this writing; phone numbers and hours should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit.
About Woodward County
Woodward County is northwestern Oklahoma’s Cherokee Strip hub county – a Great Plains agricultural and energy community that experienced one of Oklahoma’s deadliest tornadoes and rebuilt as the regional center for a vast rural landscape.
Woodward (the county seat, population ~12,000) serves as the commercial hub for a broad swath of northwestern Oklahoma – retail, healthcare, and agricultural services draw from multiple surrounding counties. The Plains Indians and Pioneers Museum documents the Cherokee Strip Land Run heritage and the region’s Native American history.
The 1947 Woodward Tornado – devastating 100 city blocks and killing 116 – prompted significant advances in tornado warning and response protocols that benefited the entire Great Plains region.
All Services
Browse every category and topic available for this county.
Woodward County Assessor at 1600 Main Street, Suite 9, Woodward, OK 73801, phone 580-256-3625. OK homestead assessed at 11% of fair cash value. Appeal to Board of Equalization.
Courts & Legal
Woodward County District Court at 1600 Main Street, Woodward, OK 73801, phone 580-256-3413, handles probate.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
COUNTY CLERK
1600 Main St, Woodward, OK 73801
(580) 256-3413
COURT CLERK
1600 Main St, Woodward, OK 73801
(580) 256-3413
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Woodward County District Court, Woodward (probate/estate case files – see Probate section above).
The historic Woodward Federal Courthouse and Post Office is a notable local landmark.
Local societies
No dedicated Woodward 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
Woodward County District Court 1600 Main Street, Suite 5, Woodward, OK 73801 (580) 256-8616 Woodward County was created in 1893, in northwestern Oklahoma, seated in Woodward.
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 Woodward 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
1600 Main St, Woodward, OK 73801
(580) 256-3220
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
ELECTION BOARD
1600 Main St, Woodward, OK 73801
(580) 256-2981
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Health Department
1601 Downs Dr, Woodward, OK 73801
(580) 256-3341
Department of Human Services
2405 Williams Ave, Woodward, OK 73801
(580) 254-0300
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: Woodward County Health Department – Woodward, OK
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
County Seat: Woodward
Population: 21,000
Established: 1907
Tier: 3
Public Records
TruthFinder
Search public records for Woodward County residents.
