Wagoner county, formed in 1908 from Creek Indian lands in northeastern Oklahoma, has the town of Wagoner serving as the county seat.

Major waterways and recreation areas include the Verdigris River, which slices its way through the middle of the county from its northern reaches to the southeast corner; the Grand (Neosho) River, entering from the northeast and, with Fort Gibson Lake, helps form the eastern county line with Cherokee County; the Arkansas River, which forms most of the southern line with Muskogee County and Sequoyah Bay State Park, near the southeast corner.

History buffs will be interested in a day trip to visit one of a handful of ghost towns throughout the county including Neodesha six miles north of Wagoner and Stone Bluff six miles northwest of Haskell.

The county population on July 1, 1999, was 56,115, an increase of 8,232 over the 1990 census.