When the Arkansas Valley and Western Railway survey bypassed the nearby settlement of Carwile, those residents began migrating closer to the proposed railroad, near where H. H. Anderson had established a store around 1896.

[5] The Woods County High School, one of only two in Oklahoma Territory at that time, was constructed in 1903 and opened in 1904 with 400 students.

Growing fast, by mid-1905 it was estimated that 700 residents supported two banks, two schools, two newspapers, four grain elevators, a flour mill, and two lumberyards.

[5] In July 2013, the remains of a mammoth were found two miles northwest of Helena by workers of Access Midstream, a natural gas provider, on land owned by brothers Dr. Michael Thorp and Tom Thorp.

Oklahoma State University geographer Carlos Cordova, and geography doctoral student Tom Cox excavated the site from September 2013 until October 2013.

[7] Oklahoma State University has plans to display the mammoth, which was donated by the Thorp's.

[8] According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 0.5 square miles (1.3 km2), all land.