On January 7, 1904, Tom West, a mixed-blood Seminole, sold George Northrup a plot of land that became the Konawa townsite.

Early-day establishments included the first newspaper, the Konawa Chief, hardware and drug stores, lumberyards, a blacksmith, and a bank.

Some moved their houses to Konawa, and many of these buildings continued to stand at the turn of the twenty-first century.

In November 1931, Konawa attracted the attention of Pretty Boy Floyd, who robbed the First National Bank.

After a disastrous fire in 1901 that destroyed the school and the monastery, the monks accepted an offer from the town of Shawnee and began construction of the Catholic University of Oklahoma and St. Gregory's Abbey in 1910.

The energy industry remained a mainstay of the local economy, with oil-field service companies still important.

In May 1968, Oklahoma Gas and Electric Corporation broke ground for the Seminole Power Plant, creating the 1,350-acre Konawa Reservoir at a cost of $45 million.

During its heyday, an estimated twenty-five thousand people attended the annual event.

[5] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.4 square miles (3.6 km2), all land.

Summers are usually somewhat wetter than winters, with much of the rainfall coming from convectional thunderstorm activity.

The racial composition of the city is 64.5% White, 21.5% Native American, 9.6% from two or more races, 2.4% Black, 0.4% Pacific Islander and 0.2% Asian.