OKLAHOMA CITY – Three years ago, the tiny community of Hochatown – after decades of political and legal battles – was incorporated as the state’s newest official town.
Located in southeastern Oklahoma, just a few miles north of Broken Bow in Mc-Curtain County, Hochatown is ground zero at what could easily be the state’s biggest tourism boom.
But even now, it’s still fighting for a ZIP code.
At least that what Dian Jordan, Hochatown’s former mayor, told members of an Oklahoma City Rotary Club last week.
“The fight for the ZIP code is active,” Jordan said.
After initially being denied a ZIP code by the U.S. Postal Service, Jordan and other community officials appealed the ruling. That appeal was also shot down.
Since then, they’ve turned to the U.S. House of Representatives which passed legislation that would require the Postal Service to assign Hochatown and several other small communities across the country ZIP codes.
“Right now, we’re waiting for the Senate to act,” Jordan told Rotary members. “But this is niche legislation and there’s not a huge amount of interest.”
The fight over the ZIP code isn’t the first for Jordan and Hochatown.
It took residents more than a decade to incorporate Hochatown so it would be an “official” town under state law. That fight went all the way to the state Supreme Court.
And while some of Hochatown’s critics say the community of about 250 will just have to wait its turn for services, what those same critics don’t talk about is Hochatown’s impact on the state. Located along the shores of Broken Bow Lake, Hochatown is home to hundreds of cabins for rent.
The rental industry in the area is huge, Jordan said, generating more than $22 million in sales tax in 2024.
These aren’t the ordinary type of cabin, Jordan said. These are huge, state-of-theart homes built as an escape by wealthy individuals in southeastern Oklahoma and north Texas. “Interstate tourism is McCurtain County is big,” she said. “It now contributes more than $400 million annually to the state’s economy.”
Records from the Oklahoma Tax Commission underscore this. In 2014, Hochatown collected less than $1 million in county lodging taxes. Ten years later, record show, the town collected almost $5 million.
“Ninety-nine percent of the tourists coming to Hochatown come from Texas — northeast Texas,” she said. “They want out of that ‘concrete jungle’ every weekend. That’s what we offer.”
Yet even with all its success, the f ight for Hochatown’s ZIP code continues.
At one time, back in 1962, Hochatown had a ZIP code: 74742, Jordan said. But they changed a few years later when the Army Corps of Engineers moved the town to build Broken Bow Lake. When the town moved, it lost its ZIP code. After the forced relocation, the U.S. Postal Service made Hochatown part of Broken Bow and assigned the community a Broken Bow ZIP code.
Years later, in 2023, after the f ight to reincorporate was successful, Jordan and Sara Jane Smallwood-Cocke, an official with the Choctaw Nation, sent a joint letter to eight postal officials asking that Hochatown’s ZIP code be reinstated.
The letter was also copied to three members of the state ’s congressional delegation: Sens. James Lankford and Markwayne Mullin and U.S. Rep. Josh Brecheen.
“In November 2022, residents of Hochatown, Oklahoma voted to officially incorporate as the Town of Hochatown. It is the newest old town, having been established two hundred years ago as a Choctaw tribal settlement. The USPS has a long histor y of service to this a rea,” the letter said. “With incorporation, we are in the unusual position of not specifically asking for a new ZIP code boundary review. One of our first steps in helping our town is to reinstate our previous ZIP code, 74742. There are several critical arguments for the Hochatown ZIP code to be reinstated.”
A year later, the Postal Service denied the request.
The denial letter — which listed an unknown person’s name in the greeting and not Jordan, who made the original request — said the Postal Service said it would not reinstate Hochatown’s ZIP code.
“After a review of your request and the documentation, granting a change of the assigned ZIP code would not have any appreciable positive impact on our operations or service to your community at this time,” the letter said. “ZIP code boundaries rarely mirror exact city, county or township boundaries. Given the finite nature of the current pool of ZIP codes, it is not possible to provide every city with their own, distinct ZIP code.”
The letter was signed by Diane Ingland, the Postal Service's district manager for the Oklahoma and Arkansas region. Ingland said the agency would hear an appeal to her decision if that appeal was made within 45 days.
The appeal was also denied.
Still, even with the denials, Jordan said the fight would continue. This year, federal legislation that would require the Postal Service to issue a ZIP to Hochatown passed the U.S. House of Representatives and is currently awaiting a hearing in the Senate.
Jordan said she remains optimistic about the legislation.
“It’s really important that we get our ZIP code and our identity back,” she said. “Because we had an identity for 200 years. We’re not going to give up.”