Kiamichi Country
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Southeastern Oklahoma is known as Kiamichi Country, a regional designation coined by the Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation as one of six travel destination regions within the state, and gets its name from the Kiamichi River.
It is a lightly populated, heavily mountainous and forested region of Oklahoma popular for its outdoor recreation such as water sports, mountain biking, hiking, hunting, fishing, and national scenic drives.
Kiamichi Country is far more "southern" in culture compared the rest of the state, due to the influx of southerners fleeing reconstruction during the post-Civil War era. The region contains in its far southern counties an area known as "Little Dixie" centered around the towns of Hugo, and Idabel.
[edit] Geogrpahy
Southeast Oklahoma is far more mountainous and forested than any other part of the state, containing most of the Ouachita Mountains in Oklahoma, the Arbuckle Mountains, and five other mountain ranges.
The Ouachita National Forest, Oklahoma's only national forest, is also in this area.
Kiamichi Country also houses "The World's Highest Hill," a 1,999-foot peak in the Star Mountains near Poteau, with the official designation for a "mountain" being anything 2,000-feet or taller. [1]
The region consists, more-or-less, of the following counties in Oklahoma: Atoka, Bryan, Choctaw, Coal, Haskell, Hughes, Johnston, Latimer, Le Flore, Marshall, McCurtain, Pittsburg, Pontotoc, Pushmataha and Seminole.
[edit] Tourism
Kiamichi Country is known as the "Deer Capital of the World." [2]
Main tourism draws include award-winning scenic drives through the Ouachita Mountains, 13 major lakes, the nearby Chickasaw National Recreation Area, state parks, and whitewater rapids sports.
The Talimena Scenic Drive is among top draws, traveling through the Ouachita National Forest in the Kiamichi Mountains.
Other Official Oklahoma Tourism regions include Green Country,Red Carpet Country, Great Plains Country, Kiamichi Country, Frontier Country, and Fun Country (known in later years as Lake Country and today as Lake & Trail Country).
[edit] Demographics
The city of McAlester serves as the region's primary urban center, although culturally and economically, it is really a suburb of the more heavily populated cities of Green Country in Northeastern Oklahoma. Another major urban center that lies to the south is Durant.
More important cities and towns include, Atoka, Poteau, Hugo, Idabel,Broken Bow, and Willburton.
Per the 2000 census, the region had 305,395 people. Whites equal about 76% of the total, American Indians total a little over 17%, and Blacks, almost 4%. Many of the blacks are descendants of the Choctaw freedmen (slaves freed by the Choctaw after the Civil War). The median per capita income is $13,948, almost $10,000 less than the state average of $23,517.
The region contains Oklahoma's largest lake by surface area, Lake Eufalla.
Other major lakes include Robert S. Kerr Lake, Sardis Lake, Hugo Lake, McGee Creek Lake, Pine Creek Lake, Lake Broken Bow, Lake Wister, Atoka Lake, and on Kimichi Country's southwestern border, Lake Texoma.
