Editing Checotah, Oklahoma (section)

==History==
[[File:Checotah Oklahoma Circa 1900.jpg|upright|left|thumb|A street scene in Checotah around 1900]]

The [[Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad]] (also known as the MKT or Katy) established a railhead on the old [[Texas Road]] in 1872 that became the site of present-day Checotah. Although it was named Checote Switch for [[Samuel Checote]], a later mapmaker spelled the name as Checotah. The town was chartered by the [[Creek Nation]] in 1893. The Dawes Commission held its first meeting here.<ref name= "EOHC-Checotah"/>

Between 1907 and 1909, the people of Checotah were involved in a dispute with nearby [[Eufaula, Oklahoma|Eufaula]] known as the [[McIntosh County Seat War]]. After Checotah was designated as the new [[county seat]], the people of Eufaula refused to hand over the county records. Soon after, a group of heavily armed men from Chectotah attempted to seize the records from the courthouse in Eufaula, but were beaten back and forced to surrender during the gunfight that followed. Eufaula was designated as the permanent seat of McIntosh County one year later.<ref name="Butler, pg. 65-73">{{cite book | last=Butler| first=Ken| title=More Oklahoma Renegades| publisher=Pelican Publishing| year=2007| isbn=978-1589804647}}</ref>

Checotah was on the route of the [[Jefferson Highway]] established in 1915, with that road running more than 2,300 miles from [[Winnipeg]], [[Manitoba]] to [[New Orleans]], [[Louisiana]].<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.jeffersonhighwayinoklahoma.com/ |title=The Jefferson Highway Route in Oklahoma|publisher= Oklahoma Members of the Jefferson Highway Association|access-date=October 27, 2019}}</ref>