The Plains tribes adopted use of the horse from the Spanish settlers in the 17th and 18th centuries, which greatly increased their range of nomadic hunting.

Before the American Civil War, the historic Plains tribes of the Kiowa, Comanche, Apache, Cheyenne, and Arapaho occupied this area.

[5] The Kiowa and Comanche tribes also battled the United States Army in 1868 in this area, when the US redeployed troops after the Civil War against Native Americans in the West.

[8] In the late 19th century, these tribes fought numerous battles against the United States soldiers and settlers through a wide area around the springs.

Lieutenant Colonels Alfred Sully and George Armstrong Custer, and General Philip Sheridan, stationed nearby at Fort Supply, led these expeditions.

The town quickly developed as an important shipping point, both for provisioning Fort Supply and as a place for loading cattle grazed in the Cherokee Outlet for shipment to eastern markets.

Woodward ranked among the most important depots in the Oklahoma Territory for shipping cattle to the Eastern and Northern states.

On September 16, 1893, officials opened the Cherokee Outlet across northern Oklahoma, which more than 50,000 migrants settled in the greatest land run in American history.

Like Dodge City, Kansas, to the North, Woodward boasted a cattle town array of saloons, gambling halls, and brothels.

Drovers widely knew the Equity, Midway, Shamrock, and Cabinet saloons of Woodward and the Dew Drop Inn as their watering holes at the end of a cattle drive.

He delivered his "Soiled Dove Plea" in a makeshift courtroom in the Woodward opera house, arguing on behalf of a prostitute who worked at the Dew Drop Inn; after ten minutes' consideration, the jury acquitted her.

By late 1902 farmers' wagons filled with corn, cotton, or sorghum crops for market had already replaced the cow ponies.

On September 7, 1907, William Jennings Bryan spoke to 20,000 people gathered in Woodward, urging the ratification of proposed state constitution of Oklahoma and the election of a Democratic Party ticket.

Two months later, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the act of Congress proclaiming admission of Oklahoma as a state, using a quill from an American golden eagle captured near Woodward.

With this development, cattlemen, such as William Thomas Waggoner, attempted to lease school lands in Woodward County for grazing.

With the dairy cows replacing beef cattle and progress measured in the number of plow-broken acres, the United States Department of Agriculture established the Great Plains Field Station, immediately southwest of town, in 1913.

Some of the men who rode for the large cattle outfits three decades earlier organized the Elks Rodeo, which began in 1929 at an arena north of town.

During the Great Depression, local Works Progress Administration projects included the damming of an artesian well, a failed oil-well venture, to form Crystal Beach Lake and its adjacent park.

Charles Lindbergh refused to give any interviews but said that he and his wife, eager for privacy, no longer wanted the public spotlight.

On January 14, 1957, United States Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson accompanied President Dwight David Eisenhower in a 12 miles (19 km) inspection tour of drought-damaged lands around Woodward.

As beef cattle again dominated the land and with the new goal of reestablishing grassy pastures, in 1978, United States Department of Agriculture renamed its facility the Southern Plains Range Research Station.

[10] Participating students completed technical descriptions, classifications, and interpretations of soil profiles in the competition, which was won by the University of Maryland.

[11] On April 9, 1947, the deadliest tornado in Oklahoma history (an F5 on the Fujita Scale) tore through Woodward, killing 181 people, injuring almost 1000, and destroying 100 city blocks.

[21] The Southern Transcon, being the main line of Class I freight rail carrier BNSF Railway, passes through Woodward.

Woodward is the principal center of trade for Northwest Oklahoma and a ten-county region including counties in Kansas and Texas.

At the urging of Senator Thomas P. Gore and David P. Marum, the former law partner of Temple Lea Houston, in 1912 the United States government located an agricultural research station in Woodward.

National rodeo champions such as Bob Crosby, Paul Carney, Toots Mansfield, Homer Pettigrew, Ace Soward, Eddie Curtis, Jess Goodspeed, Ike Rude, Jim Shoulders, Sonny Davis, Sonny Linger, and Tater Decker all competed at the Woodward Elks Rodeo.

Rodeo and movie stars were customers of the company and costumes were frequently made for Dale Evans and Roy Rogers.

The City of Woodward-owned Woodward Public Library has seen a recent complete remodel under management of Head Librarian Connie Terry.

[40] The Conference Center, across the street from Experiment Lake, is a 33,000 square foot venue for hosting vendor booths, lectures, and other presentations.