[4] The town is named for J. Fiske Devol, who owned the land on which it stands.

[5] The community of Devol began in 1907, when the Wichita Falls and Northwestern Railway laid tracks through the area.

[5] Discovery of the nearby Burkburnett Oil Field in 1918 initiated a brief boom in Devol.

In 1959 a tornado damaged most of Devol's business district (all three on the main street) and the old high school building.

The MK&T abandoned its tracks in 1972, and in the 1980s the only remaining business was a tack shop that specialized in making race horse saddles.

[citation needed] The only business in Devol proper is the Helena Chemical Company, formerly M&E Soil Service, who employs two people.

The post office had been threatened with closure in 1997 and 2002, and now operates limited weekly hours.

However, a handful of casinos employ hundreds of employees southwest of the town near the Texas border [citation needed] According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 0.5 square miles (1.3 km2), all land.