In 1894, the Dawes Commission also established its headquarters there. In 1889, a federal district court was created in Muscogee. In 1874, the federal government consolidated all of the Five Civilized Tribes agencies into one Union Agency, located just west of Muscogee. Louis and San Francisco Railway, Frisco), the Shawnee, Oklahoma and Missouri Coal and Railway (1902–03, sold to the Frisco), the Muskogee Union Railway (1903–04, sold to the Missouri, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway ), and the MOG (1903–05, which became the Texas and Pacific Railroad). Other railroads followed, such as the Kansas and Arkansas Valley Railway (1888, later the Missouri Pacific Railway), the Midland Valley Railroad (1904–05), the Ozark and Cherokee Central Railway (1901–03, sold to the St. They also began the town of Oktaha 11 miles (18 km) farther south, in the same year. Although railroad officials intended to build a depot at the site of Fort Davis, the terrain proved unsuitable, so they relocated the depot, which they named Muscogee, farther south. The Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway (also called MKT or Katy) built a line into Indian Territory, near the Three Forks. Among other provisions, they ceded their western lands back to the government and allowed rights of way to railroads. Īfter the Civil War, the Five Civilized Tribes, which included the Creeks, agreed to new treaties with the federal government. The official spelling of the name was changed to Muskogee on July 19, 1900. A post office named Muscogee had been established January 17, 1872. The county was formed at statehood with land from the Muskogee District of the Creek Nation and the Canadian and Illinois Districts of the Cherokee Nation. Federal troops attacked and destroyed Fort Davis in 1862, driving the Confederates from this area, although a few skirmishes occurred later in the war at Bayou Menard Skirmish (1862), several at Webbers Falls (1862), and the Creek Agency Skirmish (1863). Civil War, Confederate troops of the Cherokee and Creek Home Guards built Fort Davis, across the Arkansas River from Fort Gibson. The town of Fort Gibson that grew up just outside the fort claims to be the oldest town in Oklahoma. Army established Fort Gibson on the Grand River to dampen the conflict. Early in the 19th Century, Cherokee and Choctaw hunting parties made incursions that caused frequent conflict with the Osage. Auguste Pierre Chouteau and other fur traders had established a settlement at the Three Forks. By the end of the 18th century the Wichita had been driven away by the more warlike Osage, who used this as their hunting ground. He was a French explorer and trader who discovered a Wichita village in 1719. One of the first Europeans to come to this area was Jean Baptiste Bénard de la Harpe. However, archaeologists have made more extensive studies of those people known as the Mound Builders who lived here during the Caddoan Stage (A.D. According to archaeological studies, prehistoric people lived in this area as long ago as the Paleo-Indian period (before 6,000 B.

Muskogee now