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History · Olive

Olive’s post office opened in 1896

Most of Olive was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1994. Below: maps from 1970 on.

1896first post office
0on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Olive began

When was Olive founded?

1896

The Olive post office opened in 1896, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 110130 years
Founding year: the first Olive post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Olive’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Olive are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
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Start Olive’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Olive’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story so far

Olive, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Olive yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Olive is an unincorporated community in Creek County, Oklahoma, United States. As of the 2020 census, Olive had a population of 110. The post office was established November 20, 1896, and discontinued September 30, 1938. The town was named for the daughter of the first postmaster. In 1974 there was a tornado that wiped out the town. As of late 2016, the town had at least one church, a convenience store called "Happy Corner," a K-12 school, and a volunteer fire department. Olive was the birthplace of country singer Leon "Jack" Guthrie.

Its first post office opened in 1896.

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

Timeline

Olive, 1896 to 1970

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1896Post officeThe Olive post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1938Post officeThe Olive post office closes
  5. 1970On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

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On the map

Olive on the map, 1970 to 1983

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Olive. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Olive on the 1970 USGS mapOlive on the 1983 USGS map1970Olive sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Olive.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Olive had its own post office from 1896 to 1938.

Olive
1896–1938
18901960today

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Olive’s history

What year was Olive founded?

The Olive post office opened in 1896, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.