While the county was founded at statehood in 1907, the birth of the city of Okmulgee occurred years earlier, following the U.S. Civil War in 1868. Then known as Okmulke, it wasn’t until 1883 that it got the spelling we know today. The town, which is the Capital of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, was also the governmental seat of what would soon become Oklahoma.

Okmulgee had a little over two thousand residents in 1907, but that number would nearly double by 1910. Residents also got their hands on the first copies of the Okmulgee Daily Times, founded in 1911.

Over the next decade, the town saw a shift from an economy reliant on coal and agriculture to a manufacturing center featuring several machine shops, factories, and banks. Another shift came with the discovery and refining of oil, which led to the population reaching over 30,000 in the 1920s. Okmulgee was however not exempt from the struggles of The Great Depression in the 1930s, which saw that number drop to around 17,000. Decades later, postwar migration led to another decline, where it would mostly stagnate. Today, the city’s population hovers around 10,000-12,000.

Still, Okmulgee persists. Like so many of the buildings erected at its peak are still standing, including several churches, Harmon Stadium, the Okmulgee Lake Spillway and the Creek Council House, which the town was built around. The streets surrounding the capitol serve as a reminder of the native land the town rests on.

Residents still participate in events such as the Pecan Festival, the Roy LeBlanc Okmulgee Invitational Rodeo, the Harvest Spoon Chili Fest, and the Festival of Lights Parade held in December.

Okmulgee is home to the College of the Muscogee Nation, Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology and Green Country Technology Center.

Manufacturers making their home in Okmulgee include CP Kelco, Paccar Winch, Thompson Pump, Pump and Motor Works and Polyvision.

--- Notable People from Okmulgee

• Donald W. Burgess, meteorologist, tornado and weather radar expert

• Joyce Cobb, jazz and R&B singer

• Samuel Checote, (1819–1884), Creek chief

• Patrick Collins, NFL player

• Ron Gardenhire, manager of MLB’s Detroit Tigers • Jim House, Arkansas state legislator

• Wright King, actor, birthplace

• Roy LeBlanc, instrumental in organizing the Okmulgee Colored Rodeo in 1956, now known as the Roy LeBlanc Okmulgee Invitational Rodeo.

• Dewey McClain, NFL player, labor leader, politician • Mel McDaniel, country musician

• Melvin Morris, U.S. Army Medal of Honor Recipient • David Obey, U.S. Congressman, birthplace

• Oscar Pettiford, jazz bass player

• Will Sampson, artist and actor

• Bill Self, Hall of Fame college basketball coach at Kansas

• Leon B. Senter, architect, established his first office in Okmulgee in 1920 and designed the Okmulgee Golf Course and Country Club, then moved to Tulsa where he headquartered for the rest of his life

• Ted Taylor, singer

• David Thompson, former NFL running back --- Morris

The City of Morris, located eight miles east of Okmulgee, was founded in 1904, after Okmulgee resident T.F. Randolf acquired about eighty acres of land from a Creek man named Phillip Scott.

It grew around a cattle stop on the railway that ran between Muskogee and Okmulgee. By 1904, there was a bank, lumberyards, a cotton gin, and other businesses. The population was about 400 and would also see some growth with the oil boom.

In 1910, The Morris News was founded and headlines included bank robberies such as those of Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd. An article from February 4, 1932, stated that some residents were even suspected of harboring Floyd, and it is said that some viewed him as a Robin Hood-esque figure.

Morris managed to overcome a devastating tornado, which killed nine and ripped through much of the town’s business section in 1984. Today, Morris boasts several businesses, its own school system, churches, and banks.

--- The Muscogee Nation

Muscogee Nation (MN) is a self-governed Native American tribe located in Okmulgee. MN is one of the 5 Civilized Tribes and is the fourth largest tribe in the U.S. with 100,000 citizens. The government side of the tribe is made up of an executive branch, a legislative body and a tribal court system. MN is a diverse entity with many facets such as: cultural tourism, gaming, businesses, and a higher learning institution.

The two-story, log council house of the Creek Nation was constructed near the edge of a stand of timber and quickly became the center of town. In 1878 fire destroyed the council house, and a stone structure was built in its place. The Creek Council House received designation as a National Historic Landmark in 1961 and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1966 (NR 66000632). After restoration was completed in 1993, the capitol served as a museum with displays and exhibits reflecting the history of the Okmulgee area and the

Creek Nation. Okmulgee remains the home of the

Muscogee Nation Tribal Complex.

--- Henryetta

Located along Interstate 40 and the Indian Nation Turnpike, Henryetta is a major crossroads for the United States. Henryetta is conveniently located near metropolitan cities such as Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Shawnee and McAlester in Oklahoma as well as Fort Smith, Arkansas and Dallas, Texas. Many of the residents call Henryetta home and commute to those cities to work every day.

Founded as a town in 1901, Henryetta was already a major gathering place for nearly two decades.

Hugh Henry established a ranch on Creek Nation land in 1885. He soon found a deposit of coal, which he began using to fuel the forge at his ranch. Discovery of more coal deposits in the large Henryetta Coal Formation attracted several railroads to develop these mines. A settlement named Furrs grew up around the mines. The name changed to Henryetta when a post office opened on Aug. 28, 1900.

At statehood in 1907, Henryetta had 1,051 residents. The economy was based on agriculture, coal, natural gas and oil. In 1909, the area had 14 coal mines, producing 65,000 tons per month. By 1910, the population had grown to 1,671. The town added a broom factory, several brick factories and a bottling plant during the 1920s.

By the time of the 36th annual report of the Department of Mines and Minerals in 1943, combined yearly production by Acme Coal Company, Atlas Coal Company, Ben Hurr Coal Company, Starr Coal Company, and Wardin-Pullen Coal Company - all of Henryetta - was over 600,000 tons.

Henryetta’s manufacturing base continued to expand. Pittsburgh Plate Glass (PPG) built a plate glass window plant in Henryetta in 1929–30, employing 900 people and claiming to be the largest west of the Mississippi River. The factory closed in 1974, but was purchased and refitted for making glass containers, and continues in operation by Anchor Glass Container.

Eagle-Picher placed a massive zinc smelting facility in the Spelter City area of town, which continued through the 1960s. The company also employed more than 700 people at its plant that extracted the rare metal germanium. The plant has since closed and become a Superfund cleanup site.

Henryetta is home to G&H Decoy, a waterfowl

• NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman.

• Alice Ghostley (Bewitched, Grease, Designing Women)

• Broadway actor Jeremy Hays (The Phantom of The Opera, Les Misérables)

• Rodeo legends Jim Shoulders and Terry Don West. It is the birthplace of Oklahoma Supreme Court Chief Justice Steven W. Taylor and Mark Ryal, former Major League Baseball player.

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Events

Henryetta has two large annual rodeos, being the Jim Shoulders Spring Roundup Rodeo in June and the Living Legends Rodeo over Labor Day Weekend.

Henryetta’s school teams were known for their unusual nickname, the “Mud Hens” (later “Hens” and “Fighting Hens”), until a student petition led to a name change (to “Knights”) in 1989.

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Dewar

Dewar is a town in Okmulgee County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 818 at the 2010 census, a decline of 11.0 percent from the figure of 919 recorded in 2000. Founded in 1909 by workers for the Missouri, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway (MO&G), it was named for William Peter Dewar, a railroad official. It incorporated in 1909.

Dewar has a history with coal in the large Henryetta Coal Formation: the 36th annual report of the Department of Mines and Minerals from 1943 shows production by four coal companies in Dewar - Berkey Coal Company, Coal Creek Coal Company, Dewar Coal Company, and Martin-Geary Coal Company - with a combined total of over 13,600 tons of coal annually.

Dewar was along the route of the shortline Coalton Railway, later called the Okmulgee Northern Railway, which operated from Okmulgee south along the Deep Fork River carrying the coal out of the Dewar, Coalton and Schulter producing areas from 1916 to 1964.

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Grayson

Grayson is a town in Okmulgee County. The population was 159 at the 2010 census, an increase of 18.7 percent from the figure of 134 recorded in History

Grayson was originally named Wildcat and was located within the area that became McIntosh County at statehood. It was named for a Muscogee chief, George W. Grayson. The name changed when Grayson’s post office was established February 10, 1902, although the legal town name remained as Wildcat into the 1960s. At statehood, the town had 375 residents. It grew slightly to 411 in 1910, then began to decline.

The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture indicates it was an “All-Black Town,” one of more than fifty identifiable towns and settlements created by African-Americans within the borders of the current State of Oklahoma from 1865 to 1920.

In 1918, the border between McIntosh and Okmulgee

counties was realigned, which brought

Grayson into Okmulgee County.

-Rural Oklahoma. Where the winds sweep across vast fields of golden wheat and the sunsets paint the sky with hues of orange and purple, lie three small towns that each hold a unique and storied past: Nuyaka, Preston and Beggs.

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Nuyaka - A Name from the Creek

Nuyaka, approximately 4.6 mi south-southwest of Beggs and west of the city of Okmulgee off SH-56, owes its name to the Creek Nation, the original inhabitants of this land. According to Wikipedia, “the name Nuyaka is from the Creek pronunciation for