Roger Bell

Muskogee (Images of America) Roger Bell

On New Year's Day in 1872, a Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad (Katy)

track crew reached a point just a few miles south of the confluence

of the Arkansas, Grand, and Verdigris Rivers in Indian Territory and

established a depot it called Muscogee Station. A ragtag settlement

quickly developed nearby, and the name was eventually changed to

Muskogee. By the turn of the century, Muskogee became the center of

political and commercial activity in the territory. Nicknamed the "Queen

City of the Southwest," Muskogee was a boomtown, and expectations

were high that the city would develop into a large metropolitan area.

However, by the 1920s, after the oil boom in nearby Tulsa, Muskogee's

growth waned, and it became a working-class Oklahoma town. The city

was thrust into the national limelight in the 1960s by country music star

Merle Haggard and his song "Okie from Muskogee," which described

Muskogee "as a place where even squares can have a ball." An ethnically

diverse community, Muskogee has a rich history of developing artists,

musicians, politicians, and entrepreneurs.