Lincoln County, Oklahoma

Lincoln County is a county in Oklahoma, United States, about 40 miles northeast of Oklahoma
City. It had a population of 33,458 at the 2020 census, an estimated 35,278 by 2025, and covers
966 square miles (2,500 km2) centred near 35°42′N 96°53′W.

Chandler is the county seat; its postal code is 74834. The county holds 3 cities, 10
incorporated towns and 8 unincorporated communities, and it runs on Central Time. Its FIPS code
is 40081.

Towns & Villages in Lincoln County

Lincoln County has 21 named places on record: 3 cities, 10 incorporated towns, 7
unincorporated communities and one ghost town. Oklahoma has no civil townships, so the table
below drops that column. Unincorp. covers crossroads communities with no local government of
their own, including Avery, listed by the U.S. Geological Survey as a ghost town.

Stroud is a genuine straddler: its city limits reach across the Creek–Lincoln county
line, and the 2,719 figure above is citywide, not Lincoln County’s share alone. A dozen
older names once attached to this county in local records — Anderson, Clifton, Dudley,
Emsey, Fowler, Ingram, Merrick, Midway, Soonerville, South Village and Wildhorse among them
— return no trace in the Census Gazetteer, USGS Geographic Names Information System or
current county records, so they are left off this list rather than repeated on a guess.

ZIP Codes

• 74834 — Chandler (also serves county government offices and the surrounding rural
  routes)
• 74079 — Stroud
• 74864 — Prague
• 74855 — Meeker
• 74026 — Davenport
• 74881 — Wellston
• 74832 — Carney
• 74824 — Agra
• 74875 — Tryon
• 74869 — Sparks

Warwick, Kendrick and Fallis have no ZIP code of their own; mail there is delivered under a
neighboring town’s code — a legacy of closed post offices in each case, not a gap in
this list.

Geography

Lincoln County splits between two landscapes. Its eastern half lies in the Cross Timbers and
the Sandstone Hills, a belt of scrubby post oak and blackjack woodland running down central
Oklahoma; its western half flattens into the Red Bed Plains. Of the county’s 966 square
miles, 952 are land and 13 are water, about 1.4 percent — there is no large natural lake,
and the Deep Fork River, which runs through Sparks and past Meeker on its way toward the
Arkansas River, carries most of the county’s surface water.

Payne County borders Lincoln to the north, Creek County to the northeast, Okfuskee County to
the southeast, Pottawatomie County to the south, Oklahoma County to the southwest, and Logan
County to the northwest. Payne County,
Creek County,
Okfuskee County,
Pottawatomie County,
Oklahoma County and
Logan County all border Lincoln
directly.

Demographics

Lincoln County had a population of 33,458 at the 2020 census, and the latest estimate puts
the county near 35,278 residents by 2025. Chandler and Stroud are the two largest communities,
followed closely by Prague; together the three cities hold well under half the county’s
population, since most residents live outside any incorporated place. Median household income
runs $62,216, below Oklahoma’s statewide figure of $62,138. Population density works out
to roughly 35 people per square mile of land, low even by rural Oklahoma standards, reflecting a
county that is mostly farmland and woodland between two metro areas rather than inside either
one.

Economy & Local Life

Retail trade employs the most workers in the county, about 1,800 people, followed by health
care and social assistance at 1,768 and construction at 1,657. Chandler hosts the headquarters
of National American Insurance Company, a Walmart Supercenter that opened in 2008, and the Ioway
Casino, run by the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma since 2013. Downtown Chandler and downtown Stroud both
trade on Route 66 heritage — Stroud’s Rock Cafe, built from local sandstone during
the Great Depression, is the building that inspired Sally Carrera’s design in Pixar’s
Cars after the studio’s crew visited in 2001. Prague, the county’s Czech-settled
city, houses the National Shrine of the Infant Jesus of Prague and runs the Kolache Festival
every first Saturday in May, drawing crowds well beyond the city’s own 2,356 residents.

History

Lincoln County opened with the 1891 land run onto former Sac and Fox and Iowa reservation
land. Voters choosing a name for the new county picked Lincoln, honoring President Abraham
Lincoln, over the alternatives Sac, Fox and Springer. Chandler, named for Assistant Interior
Secretary George Chandler, became the county seat.

An F5 tornado hit Chandler on 30 March 1897, destroying most of the young town and killing 14
residents, one of the deadliest disasters in the county’s history. On 5 November 2011, a
magnitude-5.7 earthquake struck near Prague, at the time the strongest ever recorded in
Oklahoma; the state’s oil-and-gas-linked seismicity later produced larger quakes elsewhere.
Sac and Fox Nation citizen and Olympic champion Jim Thorpe grew up in the county after the land
run, and the 1996 Olympic torch relay passed through Prague to mark his legacy.

Getting There

Interstate 44 crosses the county’s western side through Warwick and Stroud. U.S. Routes
62, 177 and 377 and State Highways 18, 66, 99 and 102 also run through the county.

• Oklahoma City — about 40 miles southwest
• Tulsa — about 68 miles northeast
• Shawnee — about 20 miles south
• Stillwater — about 30 miles north

Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City, roughly 45 miles southwest of Chandler, is the
nearest major commercial airport. Amtrak’s Heartland Flyer stops at Oklahoma City’s
Santa Fe Station, the nearest passenger rail service; no passenger line currently runs through
Lincoln County itself.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Lincoln County located?
It sits in east-central Oklahoma, about 40 miles northeast of Oklahoma City, bordered by Payne,
Creek, Okfuskee, Pottawatomie, Oklahoma and Logan counties.

What is the population of Lincoln County?
33,458 at the 2020 census, with a 2025 estimate near 35,278.

How big is Lincoln County?
966 square miles (2,500 km2), of which 952 square miles are land and 13 square miles are
water.

What is the county seat of Lincoln County?
Chandler, named for Assistant Interior Secretary George Chandler, is the county seat.

How many towns and cities are in Lincoln County?
Thirteen incorporated places — the cities of Chandler, Stroud and Prague, plus the towns
of Agra, Carney, Davenport, Fallis, Kendrick, Meeker, Sparks, Tryon, Warwick and Wellston —
along with seven unincorporated communities and the ghost town of Avery.

What ZIP codes does Lincoln County use?
74834 for Chandler, 74079 for Stroud, 74864 for Prague, 74855 for Meeker, 74026 for Davenport,
74881 for Wellston, 74832 for Carney, 74824 for Agra, 74875 for Tryon, and 74869 for Sparks.

What is Lincoln County known for?
The 1897 Chandler tornado, Route 66 stops in Chandler and Stroud including the Rock Cafe that
inspired Pixar’s Cars, and Prague’s Czech-heritage Kolache Festival.

More counties in this state: Towns
and villages in Oklahoma.