In 1889, coal deposits discovered in the area that would become southern Haskell County attracted some European miners and American entrepreneurs.

They established a community called Panther, which was renamed in 1902 to honor Choctaw Principal Chief Green McCurtain.

In 1902 the railroad continued building westward, reaching the South (main) Canadian River.

The towns and all of their successes, however, could not withstand the events of March 20, 1912, when a terrific underground explosion in Mine Number Two took the lives of seventy-three miners and sent the San Bois Coal Company into bankruptcy.

The only reminder of McCurtain's once-prosperous past was a memorial standing silently at the site of old Mine Number Two and seventy-three graves in the nearby Miners Cemetery.

According to the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, "The only reminder McCurtain had to show of its once prosperous past was a memorial standing silently at the site of old Mine Number Two and seventy-three graves in the nearby Miners Cemetery.

"[5] McCurtain's rapid economic transformation began with the discovery of coal in 1889, the same year as the Land Run.

This discovery attracted a diverse influx of people, including Eastern European miners and American entrepreneurs, fueling the town's growth.

[7] The town of McCurtain faced successive decades of economic decline following the tragic explosion at San Bois Coal Company's Mine Number Two.

The 1912 tragedy would claim the lives of 73 miners and would begin a series of decades that included substantial population decline, decreases in job opportunities in the area, economically depressed residents would grow accustomed to severe poverty and even the next several generations that remained in the area live at or below the poverty level.