Inola, OK

Inola is a Rogers County town in the Tulsa metro, about 28 miles east of Tulsa. The 2020 census counted 1,890 residents. The name is commonly tied to E-No-Lah, or Black Fox, and the town grew after the Kansas and Arkansas Valley Railway laid tracks through the area in 1889. At the time, this was the northeastern corner of the Creek Nation in Indian Territory. The railroad brought a townsite, a post office, a newspaper, and the first clear line on the map; the highway era later turned Inola into a place where people could live near the country and work toward Tulsa.

Today, Inola has a split personality that feels very current. It is a bedroom community for Tulsa, but the opening of Sofidel’s tissue-paper factory in 2020 added a major manufacturing employer close to home. The Inola-Tulsa connection runs through jobs and commuting, while Rogers County schools, town council, and local businesses keep the daily map focused on the town itself. Cherokee history is not a footnote here; the town’s name, land history, and nearby lake country all sit inside that larger story. Inola is a small northeast Oklahoma town with a rail beginning, a metro future, and an industrial present.