Terlton is a small town in Pawnee County, Oklahoma, in the northeastern part of the state west of Tulsa. It sits about one-half mile south of U.S. Highway 412 and U.S. 64, along Terlton Road and County Road E0570, on the corridor that becomes the Cimarron Turnpike toward Tulsa. With a population of 77 at the 2020 census, Terlton is among the county's smaller incorporated communities. The town functions primarily as a commuter community. The Oklahoma Historical Society notes that essentially all of Terlton's employed residents travel to jobs in Tulsa, Stillwater, and other regional centers, a pattern made practical by the town's position along the four-lane U.S. 412 corridor. That highway links Terlton to Tulsa roughly forty minutes to the east and to Stillwater and the Interstate 35 corridor to the west, while Oklahoma City lies about ninety-five miles to the southwest. Terlton's setting places it close to Keystone Lake, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir formed on the Arkansas and Cimarron rivers when Keystone Dam was completed in 1968. The lake, about twenty-three miles upstream from Tulsa, draws anglers, boaters, and campers and shapes recreation for the whole western Tulsa region. Nearby shoreline communities include Mannford and the smaller lakeside settlements. For residents, Terlton offers a quiet, low-density home base with schools and services in nearby Cleveland and easy highway access to the region's job centers. Its identity is that of a rural Oklahoma commuter town rather than a commercial or cultural hub, with daily life centered on family, the countryside, and the lake.