[2] Named for Samuel Houston Mayes, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1895 to 1899, it was originally created at the Sequoyah Convention in August 1905.

[3] According to the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, the area covered by what is now Mayes County has many prehistoric sites.

Samuel Worcestor set up the first printing press in this part of the United States at Union Mission in 1835.

[3] In 1828, members of the Western Cherokee Nation began arriving in the area from their former lands in Arkansas.

In 1841, the present Mayes County area became part of the Saline District of the Cherokee Nation.

A 300-man Union Army force surprised an equally large Confederate unit near the present site of Locust Grove, Oklahoma in July 1862.

In July 1863, Confederate General Stand Watie tried to capture a Union supply train headed to Fort Gibson.

Federal forces under Colonel James Williams successfully defended the train and drove off Watie's men.

Colonel James Williams led a detachment that recovered the wagon train in a skirmish near Pryor Creek.

The eastern half of the county is on the Ozark Plateau, with flat areas divided by deep stream valleys.

The other three reservoirs were built by the Federal Government primarily for flood control and hydroelectric power generation.

Cattle raising and dairy farming occur in the more rugged parts of the Ozark Plateau.

[3] Heavy industry came to the county in 1941 with the creation of the government-owned Oklahoma Ordnance Works, a munitions manufacturing plant near Pryor.

The plant, which had been operated by duPont, closed after the end of World War II, and remained vacant for many years.