Tag: Bokoshe
Bokoshe ( /bəˈkoʊʃə/ bə-KOH-shə) is a town in Le Flore County, Oklahoma, United States. It is part of the Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area. Bokoshe is a Choctaw word meaning “little creek.” The population was 512 at the 2010 census, a 13.8 percent gain from 450 at the 2000 census.
Bokoshe was a Choctaw settlement in 1886, when a post office was established here. The principal business was a coal mine that employed ten miners. By 1900, the population was 153. The Ft. Smith and Western Railroad built tracks to this area to ship the coal elsewhere in 1901, and the Midland Valley railroad built its own line in 1903 – 1904. The town moved south from its initial location to the intersection of the two railroads. Two other coal mines soon opened nearby, and the population grew to 483 by 1910. By 1920, the census reported a population of 869.
Bokoshe’s mines fared better during the Great Depression than those elsewhere in the state. By 1930, the population had…
