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City of Moore

The Moore post office was established May 27, 1889, during the Land Run of 1889 and was named for Al Moore, an Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway employee. According to the town history he was a "conductor or a brakeman, lived in a boxcar at the camp and had difficulty receiving his mail. He painted his name – "Moore" – on a board and nailed it on the boxcar. When a postmaster was appointed, he continued to call the settlement Moore. When the town incorporated in 1893 the name was legalized."[6][7]

The city's history notes that the community before the post office may have been called "Verbeck" by the railroad.[6] However, other histories indicate that Verbeck was actually the original name of the nearby telegraph station "Oklahoma" which became the basis for the founding of Oklahoma City.[8]

The community remained small until 1961, when it annexed 21.6 square miles (56 km2), becoming a full-fledged city in 1962, which in turn increased its population from 1,221 in 1960 to 18,761 in 1970 and 55,081 in 2010.[6] Moore's 1961 annexation kept it an independent city at a time when Oklahoma City through annexations increased its size from 25 square miles (65 km2) to 643 square miles (1,670 km2) surrounding Moore on three sides (north, east, west). Norman forms its southern border.[9]

In 1966 the Hillsdale Free Will Baptist College, after moving through various locations around Oklahoma, opened in the community.

The Moore post office turned into a branch of the Oklahoma City post office on January 7, 1972.[7]

In the 1970's the city launched a "Smile America" campaign in which giant red, white and blue smileys were painted on the town water towers. A smiley also adorns the city's official logo (as does a water tower).[10] Some of the water towers now have a sign that says, "Moore - Home of Toby Keith."[11][12]