Encyclopedia of Oklahoma Culture and History

A Story by nadiabrogan

Muskogee is in the eastern part of Oklahoma, 50 miles southeast of Tulsa. It is at the intersection of U.S. Highways 62, 64, and 69 and the Muskogee Turnpike. The city was founded in January 1872 as a

Muskogee is in the eastern part of Oklahoma, 50 miles southeast of Tulsa. It is at the intersection of U.S. Highways 62, 64, and 69 and the Muskogee Turnpike. The city was founded in January 1872 as a railroad station at the top of the grade for the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway, which ran along the famous Texas Road. It is now the county seat of Muskogee County. From Oklahoma to Texas, this road was used by tens of thousands of families and freighters every day. Part of the Texas Road was made into Cherokee Street, which is in the town of Muskogee.

Muskogee was first only in the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, which is where it got its name, and was the only depot that nation would allow (town boundaries have since expanded to include parts of the old Cherokee Nation). Contractors for the railroad got permission to build a post office, which they called Muscogee Station. The town kept that name for about twenty years. After that, Muskogee was used. On March 19, 1898, the town got its own government. In 1900, there were 4,254 people living there.

In 1874, the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, and Seminole tribes' U.S. Indian agencies were merged into one office in Muskogee. This office was called the Union Agency. This office was west of town on a hill that people started calling "Agency Hill." Muskogee started holding annual Indian Fairs in the early fall of 1874. These fairs were meant to promote peace between different races and tribes, education, agricultural improvement, and social progress. At the western edge of Indian Territory, these fairs had an effect on neighboring states and tribes. After that, Muskogee became the site of the annual Oklahoma Free State Fair, which kept promoting economic and cultural growth for decades after the state joined the union in 1907.

Muskogee was also the site of the first federal district court in Indian Territory. It opened on March 1, 1889. In 1894, the Dawes Commission moved to Muskogee to run the process of registering people from the Five Tribes. In 1900, because of both projects, it was said that Muskogee had the most federal workers of any city other than Washington, D.C. Even in the twenty-first century, the Bureau of Indian Affairs had a regional office in Muskogee that took care of the needs of American Indians in forty-one Oklahoma counties.

Muskogee was the second-largest town in Indian Territory when it became a state in 1907. Within a decade, it had ten buildings with more than five stories. By 1910, there were 25,278 people living there. African Americans were some of the first people to move to Muskogee. They quickly learned that it was a great place to make money. After that, many African American businesses grew up along Second Street. These businesses included oil companies, restaurants, clothing stores, newspaper printing, and real estate brokerages. In 1894 oil wells were drilled near Muskogee. On October 30, 1896, oil was found at a depth of 1,200 feet near the east side of the town. Because of these wells, other fields in the state were found and built up.

The first bank in Indian Territory was started in Muskogee on June 7, 1890, and it stayed independent until the end of the 20th century. Muskogee's early growth was stopped by three big fires. When the first one happened on March 27, 1887, most businesses were destroyed. Eight downtown businesses were destroyed by fire on February 26, 1894. On February 23, 1899, a third fire burned down twice as many buildings. After the first fire, the Muskogee Phoenix newspaper changed its name to the Muskogee Daily Phoenix & Times-Democrat. It was a subsidiary of Gannett Company, Inc. until the 21st century.

In 1898, Muskogee raised Troops L and M to fight in the Spanish-American War with Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders. This signing up was a step toward making the Oklahoma National Guard. In August 1905, a constitutional convention was held in Muskogee. This meeting led to a plan for the State of Sequoyah, which President Theodore Roosevelt and the Congress were against. Charles N. Haskell, the first governor of Oklahoma, and Robert Latham Owen, a banker from Muskogee who became one of Oklahoma's first U.S. senators, were both at the meeting. During the Republican landslide of 1921, the people of Muskogee chose Alice M. Robertson to be their representative in the U.S. House of Representatives. She was only the second woman to serve in Congress at the time.

Muskogee has always put a lot of value on education. Harrell International Institute, Spaulding Institute, and Nazareth Institute were all schools he went to in the past. On June 23, 1898, Henry Kendall College in Muskogee gave Oklahoma's first degree after high school. In 2001, there were Connors College, Bacone College, the Oklahoma School for the Blind, and a branch campus of Northeastern State University. Patrick J. Hurley, who was U.S. Secretary of War, and James Howard Edmondson, who was governor of Oklahoma from 1959 to 1963, both went to school in Muskogee.

The town has been an important place for agriculture, light manufacturing, transportation, and distribution in east-central Oklahoma. Hatbox Field was built in 1921 as an airport for the U.S. Army and the town of Hatbox. The field stopped having flights in 1998. In the early 1900s, Muskogee was the starting point for balloon flights for aviation. From 1916 on, there were the start of several national balloon races. Freight can be sent there by rail on the Union Pacific Railway or by barge to the Port of Muskogee, which is at river mile 396 on the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System. The Three Forks Harbor, which is near where the Arkansas, Grand, and Verdigris rivers meet, is getting new public recreation facilities. Davis Field has three runways that can handle jets. The airport is open and lit 24 hours a day, no matter the weather, and has a fixed-base operator.

From 1920 (30,277) to 1940 (32,322), Muskogee's population stayed the same, but it grew after that. In 1950, 37,289 people lived there, in 1970, 37,331, and in 1990, 37,708 people lived there. Muskogee is the county seat of Muskogee County. In 2000, there were 38,310 people from many different backgrounds living there, and in 2010, there were 39,223. The city's government is made up of a council and a manager. The Azalea Festival is held every year in April, and the Garden of Lights show is held in Honor Heights Park from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day. At the start of the twenty-first century, Muskogee had a number of museums. There was the Ataloa Lodge Museum at Bacone College, the Five Civilized Tribes Museum and Center for Indian Territory, which focused on American Indian history and art, the Thomas-Foreman Home, the Three Rivers Museum, which kept the history of Muskogee and the surrounding counties alive, the Muskogee War Memorial Park, where the USS Batfish is kept, and the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame, which honored Oklahoma music and musicians. The John Thomas/Grant Foreman House (NR 73001565), the Railroad Exchange (NR 83002096), Escoe (NR 83002094), Surety (NR 86002156), and Manhattan (NR 83002095) buildings, the Pre-Statehood Commercial District (NR 83004210), Union Agency (NR 70000535), the United States Post Office and Courthouse (also called the Federal Building and United States Court, NR 00000246), and the Muskoge (NR 84003173).