Jay, OK

Jay is Delaware County's seat in northeastern Oklahoma, a town deliberately laid out for that job after residents challenged Grove's county-seat position in the years after statehood. The town was named for Jay Washbourne, a nephew of Stand Watie and grandson of a Cherokee missionary. Jay's county offices and courthouse sit within a region where Cherokee history remains part of the civic map, and the town hosts Cherokee tribal offices and a health clinic for the Delaware District. The Huckleberry Festival, started in 1967, arrives each July 4 weekend, giving the county seat its best-known annual tradition. State Highways 59 and 20 meet at Jay, while Grand Lake lies nearby. Jay is an Oklahoma county seat whose origin was a political relocation, whose name comes from Cherokee history, and whose summer festival keeps the berry in the conversation.