city, Payne county, north-central Oklahoma, U.S., near the Cimarron River. A portion of the Sac and Fox Indian Reservation, the area now known as Cushing, was opened to homesteaders in 1891 and settled as a farming community. It was named for Marshall Cushing, private secretary of John Wanamaker (then U.S. postmaster general). It became a city in 1913 after discovery of the rich Cushing Oil Field and is surrounded by oil derricks, pipelines, and tank farms. In 1915, the height of the oil boom, Cushing oil wells daily produced 300,000 barrels of crude. At the turn of the 21st century, the city's manufactures still centred largely on petroleum and allied products but included some agricultural industrial items. Pop. (1970) 7,529; (1990) 7,218; (2000) 8,371.