Although Pushmataha County was created on November 16, 1907 – the day of Oklahoma’s statehood – no historical society was established for almost 80 years.
On January 20, 1984 a group interested in preserving the history of the county met at the Diamond Steak House in Antlers to found a historical society.
Built by the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad, also called the Frisco, in 1913, it had fallen into disrepair and general disuse.
Several volunteers completed this mammoth project, including co-chairmen Jerry Miller and Everett Helm, assisted by Allan Birdsell, Kay Black, Kenneth and Myrtle Edmond, Christine Ives, Marjorie Rember, and others.
In exchange, however, the city placed the Pushmataha County Chamber of Commerce in a portion of the facility originally used for historical exhibits, where it remained for several years before relocating.
Ms. West—an original Choctaw Indian allottee— was a gifted writer and trained journalist who collected historical information for decades before compiling and publishing it.
Because the county court house burned during the Great Depression, Ms. Black has used primary historical sources, such as newspapers, to compile much of the data.
One particularly unique piece is a large-sized wall map of the county published in the early years of the Twentieth Century.
The record extends unbroken from that year through the present via several newspaper titles published in Antlers, Albion, Clayton and Tuskahoma.
[9] The collection also includes many photographs, some dating from territorial times, charting the settlement and establishment of civilization and society in the county.
Formally called the AT6 Monument, it marks the location of a fatal airplane crash during World War II which killed Royal Air Force pilots sent to the U.S. for training by the British Government.
The crash occurred during stormy weather and involved two fighter planes—the other impact site is located on White Rock Mountain above Moyers; no marker has been erected there.
Wire services around the world carried the story, as did the British Broadcasting Corporation, American television and radio outlets, and many state and local newspapers, all of which sent reporters to cover the event.
The AT6 Monument stands in a grove of pine trees aside a large boulder which the wrecked plane struck and turned upright—almost as a natural tombstone, as local residents sent to investigate the crash noted.