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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

We have a couple of goals for our Gazetteer:

  • That it be a tool which helps us with planning our trips.
  • We're trying to shape our Gazetteer as a tool to help us understand the community in which our ancestors lived, the community that was part of their daily lives.
  • On our trips, we try to visit those places where our ancestors left their footprints.

By learning about Muskogee (and the surrounding area) during the time that our ancestors lived, we hope to have a better understanding of both their community and its relationship to their lifes. We hope that this tool helps to give us an insight into their world.

As we add data and organize our Gazetteer to help with our family research, we will be adding to this our Genealogical Helper for Muskogee. While we don't have information that is specific to any given person or family, we intend to expand our understanding about where and how people lived.

Neighboring Counties ...

When searching for family records, we have frequently made the mistake of not checking the neighboring counties.

For example, we have great-grandparents who lived in the northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and doctors were in the next county to the west. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the north.

So when searching for records, we had our best success by looking in neighboring counties instead of the county in which they lived:  their home county contained property and probate records; the county to the west contained birth and death records; the county to the north contained their burial records. If we hadn't included the neighboring counties, we would have missed many valuable sources of information.

If you're in a similar situation, we hope that the following information helps.

Muskogee is located in Muskogee County and is the County Seat.

To see how the shape of Oklahoma's counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Muskogee County: Cherokee, Haskell, McIntosh, Okmulgee, Sequoyah & Wagoner.

Below are the counties that are near Muskogee. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Muskogee:

  • Muskogee County     (The home county of Muskogee)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Muskogee, with the one closest to Muskogee listed first.
    • Bacone
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Wybark
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Fort Gibson
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Summit
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Summit is located in Muskogee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Summit
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 136 people
    • Taft
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
      • Taft is located in Muskogee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Taft
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 236 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Taft <1>
    • River Bottom
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
      • River Bottom is located in Muskogee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for River Bottom
    • Beland
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Braggs
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Oktaha
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Wainwright
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Sour John
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Sour John is located in Muskogee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sour John
    • Jamesville
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
    • Boynton
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Cherokee County
  • Haskell County
    • Tamaha
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Tamaha is located in Haskell County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tamaha
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 235 people
  • Mayes County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Muskogee, with the one closest to Muskogee listed first.
    • Mazie
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Cedar Crest
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • Pin Oaks Acres
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
      • Pin Oaks Acres is located in Mayes County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pin Oaks Acres
    • Ballou
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Murphy
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
      • Murphy is located in Mayes County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Murphy
    • Chouteau
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
  • McIntosh County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Muskogee, with the one closest to Muskogee listed first.
    • Rentiesville
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Shady Grove
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
      • Shady Grove is located in McIntosh County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shady Grove
    • Checotah
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Duchess Landing
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • Duchess Landing is located in McIntosh County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Duchess Landing
    • Onapa
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Richardsville
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Hitchita
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Texanna
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
      • Texanna is located in McIntosh County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Texanna
  • Okmulgee County
  • Rogers County
    • Inola
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
  • Sequoyah County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Muskogee, with the one closest to Muskogee listed first.
    • Paradise Hill
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Paradise Hill is located in Sequoyah County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Paradise Hill
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 80 people
    • Gore
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Gore is located in Sequoyah County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gore
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 946 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Gore <1>
    • Redbird Smith
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
      • Redbird Smith is located in Sequoyah County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Redbird Smith
    • Box
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Carlisle
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Evening Shade
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • Vian
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Vian is located in Sequoyah County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vian
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,356 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Vian <1>
    • Pinhook Corners
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Pinhook Corners is located in Sequoyah County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pinhook Corners
  • Tulsa County
  • Wagoner County

For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Muskogee, see our County-by-County Page for Muskogee.

Cemeteries Near Muskogee ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Muskogee.

This is a new section and is likely to have errors. If you find an error, such as a missing cemetery or we have the wrong name, please let us know. If you know of them, we would also appreciate learning about previous or alternate names.

Although we don't have the information ourselves, if you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our list of websites on our Genealogy Helper Page for Muskogee - one of the links might be able to help.

If not found below, our Cemetery List for Muskogee covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Muskogee, with the one closest to Muskogee listed first.

Nearby Communities in 1895 ...

We've built the following list with information that came from an Atlas published by Rand McNally in 1895. The Atlas had details such as the population of the community (which appears to have come from the 1890 Census) and whether there was a post office and/or railroad service available. We also indicate if the community no longer exists and is now historic.<3>

While we didn't find Muskogee in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Muskogee.

These communities are listed based on their distance from Muskogee, with the one closest to Muskogee listed first.

  • Martin
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • Martin is located in Muskogee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Martin
  • Keith
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Keith is located in Rogers County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Keith
  • Morris
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)

We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Muskogee. See our List of 1890's Communities around Muskogee.

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Muskogee ...

An ongoing effort between the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has resulted in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

To share their results, the partnership has created the Chronicling America website. The goal of this partnership is to assemble a database about the current and historic newspapers of the United States. This includes a growing collection of scanned images from selected papers. All of it available to the public on their website.

Using information that we've taken from the Chronicling America website, we've identified 107 newspapers that have been published in the area around Muskogee.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Muskogee. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Muskogee and those printed in the larger area surrounding Muskogee.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4> of Muskogee.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These websites either offer the information directly or else point to where you can find it. Their information is open to everyone.

To help you get started, the following links will take you to the pages that are relevant to Muskogee:

Footnotes ...

<1>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<2>The Find-a-Grave website is an excellent research tool with information about a cemetery's location and interments. They also offer a forum for their members which can provide additional help. More information about Find-a-Grave can be found on their website: findagrave.com.
<3>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Muskogee, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Muskogee) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.