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1900 Map of Winding Stair

Name: 1900 Topographic Map of Winding Stair
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1900
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1900

About this map

Wister and Heavener serve as the primary junctions in this late-nineteenth-century survey of Choctaw Nation territory. The landscape is defined by the heavy presence of the railroad industry, with the Choctaw Oklahoma and Gulf R.R. and the St. Louis and San Francisco R.R. bisecting the northern plains before the land rises sharply into the massive ridges of Winding Stair Mountain and the Kiamichi Mountain.

Smaller settlements such as Summerfield, Reichert, and Conser are scattered throughout the Poteau River and Fourche Maline basins, often situated at the feet of prominent peaks like Cavanal Mtn. and Sugarloaf Mtn.. To the south, the terrain becomes increasingly complex, showing the Woods Trail winding through the Kiamichi range toward the Little River. This map documents a pivotal era of expansion in Indian Territory, shortly before Oklahoma statehood, where coal and timber interests drove the development of towns like Petros and Howe.