Wilson is a small city in southwestern Carter County, Oklahoma, on U.S. Highway 70 about 16 miles west of Ardmore, the county seat, and 35 miles east of Waurika. Its roughly 1,500 residents live in a community whose brief, dramatic oil-boom history still shapes its identity and streetscape. Wilson was founded in September 1913 by two larger-than-life partners: Jake Hamon, an Ardmore oilman, and John Ringling, the circus magnate. The two envisioned building a railroad from Ardmore toward the Pacific, and although that grand plan never materialized, they did construct the Oklahoma, New Mexico and Pacific Railroad — the "Ringling Road" — as far as the town of Ringling. The new railroad town was named Wilson for Ringling's secretary, Charles Wilson, and was initially called "New Wilson" to distinguish it from an older Wilson settlement southeast of Ardmore. The oil boom transformed the fledgling town almost overnight. By the end of 1914, Wilson was estimated to hold more than 2,000 residents, and by early 1918 its population approached 3,000 as workers flocked to the Arbuckle-region oil fields. The boom eventually cooled, and Wilson settled into the quieter rhythms of a southern Oklahoma agricultural and oil-country town. Today Wilson is a low-key community served by U.S. Highway 70, with Ardmore — the region's commercial and medical hub — a short drive east. Wilson Public Schools serves local students from elementary through high school. The town's history as a Ringling-and-oil creation gives it an unusually colorful backstory for a town of its size. Who Wilson suits: it appeals to those seeking small-town or rural living in southern Oklahoma with an easy drive to Ardmore and the Arbuckle Mountains, and an interest in the region's oil-patch heritage.