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by Roger Bell (Author)
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.
