Hochatown, OK

Hochatown is a McCurtain County town of 242 residents in the 2020 census, about a mile west of Broken Bow Lake along U.S. 259. It is the second Hochatown: the first town was inundated when the Mountain Fork River was dammed to create the lake. The earlier community grew on Choctaw land in the 1880s, around the Choctaw Lumber and Coal Company, and received a post office in 1894. A railroad spur carried logs toward Eagletown before the timber supply declined.

The present town sits in the Cedar Mountain country, eight miles north of Broken Bow and about 20 miles north of Idabel. Cabins, restaurants, outfitters, and other visitor businesses now fill the road between town and the lake, with Broken Bow Lake and Beavers Bend State Park drawing much of the traffic. Hochatown's older story remains visible in the name and the flooded townsite: the community moved from a lumber settlement to a recreation center shaped by the lake. Broken Bow Public Schools serve the area, while U.S. 259 is the main line through a town built around forest, water, and travel.