The town takes its name from Smith Paul, a North Carolina native who married a Chickasaw woman and set up a plantation in 1847 where Rush Creek meets the Washita River. Locals called the spot Smith Paul’s Valley, and the Santa Fe Railway shortened it when the tracks arrived in 1887.
Today Pauls Valley is the Garvin County seat, home to 5,992 people at the 2020 census and served by ZIP code 73075. Downtown streets were bricked in 1909, the Garvin County Courthouse stands on W Grant Ave, and the Toy and Action Figure Museum on S Chickasaw St also holds the Oklahoma Cartoonists Hall of Fame.
Students attend Pauls Valley Public Schools, Pauls Valley City Lake offers fishing and camping northeast of downtown, and the town sits along I-35 at exits 70 and 72.
Hail and tornadoes both appear in the local weather record. On May 4, 2020, the National Weather Service recorded 1.5-inch hail about a mile west of town and 1.25-inch hail just southeast of it. NWS tornado records list EF1 tornadoes near Pauls Valley on April 27, 2021, and November 3, 2024, and a 1961 twister that demolished a bowling alley in town.
Building requirements come from the City of Pauls Valley and can be revised. We confirm what applies to your project before tear-off starts.