Cherokee County history

In 1837, local removal forts were built at Fort Buffington and Sixes.

In 1838, soldiers forcibly evicted the Cherokee and sent them to the forts.

Prominent Cherokees settled at Park Hill, an established mission community, and at Tahlequah, the new capital, which was incorporated under Cherokee law in 1844.

As the gold supply dwindled, many people from Cherokee County left for the west after gold was discovered in California in 1848.

The 1850 population of 6,673 was the third largest in the state.

The Cherokee Male and Female seminaries opened in 1851 at Tahlequah and Park Hill, respectively.

The order to burn Canton was issued in October 1864 and at least half of the town was burned, including the courthouse and the bridge over the Etowah River.

In 1901–03 the Ozark and Cherokee Central Railway (acquired by the St Louis and San Francisco Railway) became the first to build tracks though Cherokee County, accessing markets and contributing to an increase in agricultural production.

Land was surveyed in that decade, and beginning in 1902 individual Cherokees received allotments from the federal government.

Cherokee County was created from the Cherokee Nation's Tahlequah District at the 1906 Constitutional Convention and named for the Cherokee Nation.

Tahlequah, Originally Built, Rebuilt in 1928 after fire

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, men from Cherokee County enlisted in the service and in May 1942, women could join the Women’s Army Corps.

In 1953 the United States Army Corps of Engineers completed Tenkiller Ferry Dam on the Illinois River for flood control and recreation purposes.

Thomas L. Ballenger, Historic Points In and Around Tahlequah (Tahlequah, Okla.: Tahlequah Printing Co., 1964).

By 1970 the population had reached 23,174, and growth continued steadily.

In 1979, the first stage of I-575 was completed to Highway 92 in Woodstock and it was opened to traffic the following year.

Odie B. Faulk and Billy M. Jones, Tahlequah, NSU, and the Cherokees (Tahlequah, Okla.: Northeastern State University Educational Foundation, 1984).

The next section to Highway 20 was opened in 1985 and the last section to Pickens County was completed later.

Brad Agnew, "Sleepy County Seat Evolves into a Thriving Community," Tahlequah (Oklahoma) Daily Press, 14 October 1993.

Robert Conley, "'Two were enough' to make historic Cherokee settlement," Tahlequah (Oklahoma) Daily Press, 2 November 1997.

David Campbell, Railroads Through Cherokee County: Frisco Ozark Route and the St Louis and Oklahoma Southern (Tahlequah, Okla.: Indian Territory Genealogical and Historical Society, 1998).

The decrease in agriculture was largely due to urbanization around the Tahlequah area and economic development after World War II. In 2000 the county's major employers included Northeastern State University, the Cherokee Nation, the nursery industry, and public education.