Best Web Design in Stillwater, OK (2026)

Web Design for Stillwater, Oklahoma

Stillwater is the orange-clad home of Oklahoma State University and the birthplace of Red Dirt music, a raw blend of country, folk, blues, and rock that grew out of local house jams and juke joints. Born in a single day during the 1889 Land Run and shaped by the land-grant college it won in 1890, the city pairs national-champion Cowboy wrestling with cheese fries, calf fries, and the neon of Eskimo Joe's.

AppWT works with Stillwater, OK businesses from Livonia, Michigan, mostly online and travelling as needed.

About Stillwater

Also known as. Stilly. America's Friendliest College Town. Still Pioneering (city motto).

History. William L. Couch established a Boomer colony on the banks of Stillwater Creek in 1884, giving the future town its name. Stillwater was settled during the Land Run into the Unassigned Lands on April 22, 1889; a post office opened May 28, 1889, and the city charter was adopted August 24, 1889. After disputes with Payne Center and Perkins, Stillwater won the Payne County seat when Congress passed the Organic Act on May 2, 1890. The territorial legislature named Stillwater the land-grant college site in December 1890, creating Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, now Oklahoma State University. During World War II the city hosted nearly 40,000 service members for training, including about 10,000 in the Navy's WAVES program.

Local economy. Oklahoma State University is by far the largest employer, with roughly 6,007 workers and more than 20,000 students. Stillwater Medical Center employs about 1,031 people. OnCue Express, a convenience-store chain, employs around 903 locally. Stillwater Public Schools and the City of Stillwater are among the top employers. The broader economy spans aerospace, agribusiness, biotechnology, optoelectronics, printing and publishing, and software manufacturing.

Culture and community. Stillwater is celebrated as the home of Red Dirt music, with Bob Childers regarded as the genre's father and Cross Canadian Ragweed and Jason Boland & The Stragglers among its standard-bearers; Garth Brooks and The All-American Rejects also launched careers here. Eskimo Joe's, opened in 1975 by OSU grads Steve File and Stan Clark, is famous for its cheese fries, which were featured on Food Network and even praised by President George H.W. Bush. OSU Homecoming, held since 1920, draws crowds of 70,000-plus. The Tumbleweed Calf Fry festival celebrates the fried-bull-testicle Oklahoma delicacy. Bob Childers' Gypsy Cafe (since 2011) and the Red Dirt Film Festival keep the music-and-arts scene humming, alongside the Land Run 100 gravel bike race.

What makes Stillwater distinct. Stillwater is the acknowledged birthplace of Red Dirt music. Garth Brooks was discovered performing at Willie's Saloon on the Strip by a Dallas entertainment attorney. OSU's wrestling program has won 34 team national championships and produced 134 individual NCAA champions, both NCAA records. The first Sonic Drive-In under that name opened here in 1959, and the site keeps the original sign and a statue of its first franchise manager. Direct descendants of composer Johann Sebastian Bach, through the line of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, once lived in Stillwater. The city appears in the 2024 disaster film Twisters.

Stillwater Landmarks and Local Life

• The National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum.
• The Sheerar Museum of Stillwater History - which focuses on the 1889 Land Run
• The OSU Museum of Art - opened in 2013 in a renovated WPA-era federal post office
• The Botanic Garden at Oklahoma State University - spanning more than 100 acres
• Old Central - the oldest building on the OSU campus, dating to 1894
• The first Sonic Drive-In location - opened in Stillwater in 1959