Winchester is a town in Okmulgee County, Oklahoma. The population was 516 at the 2010 census, an increase of 21.7 percent from 424 at the 2000 census. It is a recently built residential community, having incorporated February 18, 1974. Winchester began in as a residential community on 2,500 acres of land acquired by William D. Crews in 1959. It was intended to attract people who were "tired and frustrated" with life in Tulsa. It incorporated February 18, 1974. By 1980, it had a population of 150.
Winchester was founded by developers headed by William D, Crews who were frustrated by "big city living" in Tulsa. Development began in 1959 on 2,500 acres of pasture land, although the final order of incorporation was not received by Winchester until February 18, 1974.
William D. Crews on behalf of the Green Country Racing Association applied to the Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission to build a $120 million para-mutual horse racetrack in the town, to be called Winchester Park, on December 16, 1983. However, that application was turned down twice, once in 1984 based on insufficient financing and unrealistic attendance and wagering projections, and finally in 1985 as incomplete.
Winchester again made the news in March 1989 when the Institute for the Study of American Wars (ISAW), a Delaware-based nonprofit organization, chose Winchester over competing sites in Oklahoma, Arizona, Pennsylvania and New Mexicofor a proposed $150 million war museum complex. However, the selection was withdrawn in April after a disagreement regarding donation of the land. ISAW claimed the State of Oklahoma could not or would not follow through on an earlier pledge of immediate donation in fee of 300 acres of land, and was instead offering only a 200-year lease of the land and/or was demanding proof that ISAW had the funding to build the museum prior to transfer of the land. ISAW later admitted to having raised only $65,000. ISAW then selected the Phoenix area and on July 17, 1989 announced the exact site as a donated 300 acres of a 7,500-acre cotton farm between Phoenix and Tucson once owned by movie star John Wayne, known as John Wayne's Red River Ranch, in Casa Grande, Arizona. In the end, the museum was never built in any location, and ISAW's entity status was voided effective March 1, 1998 by the Delaware Secretary of State.
