HOCHATOWN – The 307 residents just might get their ZIP Code back.
On Monday, the McCurtain County Board of Commissioners unanimously voted to approve a petition for public vote on the incorporation of the small southeastern Oklahoma community.
Located in far southeastern Oklahoma – in an area often call Little Dixie – the unincorporated town of Hochatown lies off U.S. 259, roughly 10 miles north of Broken Bow. It’s just about a mile west of Beavers Bend State Park and Broken Bow Lake.
Once a bustling lumber and mining community, Hochatown was known as a haven for bootleggers in the 1920s. Today it’s one of the hot spots of Oklahoma tourism.
The town lost its post office in 1963.
Residents of Hochatown have been fighting to incorporate their town since 1993, said Dian Jordan one of the sponsors of the petition. Jordan said she was stunned by Monday’s vote.
“I thought they (the commission) would continue to stall on us,” she said. “I mean, it was pretty clear what they should have done. They kept throwing roadblocks on us.”
Edmond attorney Lysbeth “Liz” George said the community was successful because they never gave up. “It’s about being the squeaky wheel,” she said.
George said commission’s yes vote allows the town to submit language to the McCurtain County Election Board for the incorporation vote. She said that language was filed Monday to ensure that the incorporation question would be on the ballot for November.
Jordan said the fight over Hochatown’s incorporation was necessary to ensure that the town had the proper infrastructure and municipal government. She said tourism has grown so much in the area that any weekend brings thousands and thousands of visitors to the area.
“When you have that many people you need police and fire services and you need a functioning municipal government,” she said.
While the commission’s yes vote clears a big obstacle for the community, Jordan said much work remains to be done. Supporters of the petition plan to mount a campaign to encourage yes votes and begin the process of building a municipal government.
“Many residents have lived down here for decades,” she said. “They lost their town once, we didn’t want them to lose it again. We want our ZIP Code back.”
This November they just may make that happen.