1909 Map of Tuskahoma

About this map

The Choctaw Council House stands as a central landmark in this 1909 snapshot of the Choctaw Nation’s territory, shortly after Oklahoma statehood. The landscape is defined by the heavy infrastructure of the Chicago Rock Island and Pacific and the St Louis and San Francisco railroads, which facilitated the growth of coal-mining hubs like Wilburton and timber settlements such as Talihina. Between the ridges of Buffalo Mountain and the Winding Stair Mountain, a network of small communities including Tuskahoma, Clayton, and Red Oak follow the fertile valleys of the Kiamichi River and Fourche Maline. This survey, based on original work by C.H. Fitch, captures the transition from tribal sovereignty to the industrial rail-and-resource economy of the early twentieth century, noting local religious centers like the Thessalonian Church and Peaceable Chapel.