Name of Creek Raises Stink In Pryor

Oklahoma has some interesting names for creeks, everything from Clear Boggy to Lightning to Hell Roarin' Creek.

Pryor's mayor is turning up his nose at the attention the state is giving to one creek.

The Oklahoma Department of Transportation routinely puts up signs along highways identifying creeks. But some signs put up in Pryor raised a big stink with the mayor.

"Because it said Stink Creek,” Jimmy Tramel said.

Tramel says it stinks the state put up the signs in the first place, so he told city crews to take all four of them down.

"I took it personally, I didn't want to be known as a stinky little town so I took them down," he said with a laugh.

Tramel says it may not be enough to derail economic growth for the city, but the Stink Creek signs don't do the community any favors.

Of course, the state wanted to know why the signs were removed.

"They said, ‘who gave you the authority?' And I said, ‘I did. I'm the Mayor,” he said with another laugh.

ODOT says U.S. Geological Survey records show the creek's name actually is Stink Creek.

That news brings a chuckle to some folks who don't mind the malodorous moniker.

"I love the name, I think it's unique, I think it's cool,” Pryor resident Victoria Slagle said.

And from others who side with the mayor over the sticky, stinky situation.

Reporter: "You don't want to be the town known for Stink Creek."

Steve Meeks: "No, not at all."

Since we know you're wondering: “Does Stink Creek really stink?” We took an unscientific, yet very personal smell test, and the creek doesn't stink, but at one time it did.

"There was a radium springs, artesian well and all the water would back up and there was a salvage, the water would back up in there, and the fish would come in there and die in the old sulphur water and it stunk,” Tramel said.

ODOT will let the city change the creek's name. So Pryor will hold a naming contest, where people can submit ideas like maybe Butterfly Creek or Wildflower Creek, anything but Stink Creek.

"I put it out there, [and] somebody said just don't name it Tramel Creek,” the mayor said chuckling.

The naming contest should begin in about a month.