Ketchum, OK

Ketchum sits at the south end of Craig County, with a portion reaching into Mayes County and a small arm of Grand Lake nearby. The town’s history has a literal change of ground beneath it: established in 1899 on the banks of Grand River, the original site was later covered by Grand Lake o’ the Cherokees. Residents had already moved the town by then, relocating toward a railroad townsite laid out in 1912. Ketchum was named for James Ketchum, a Delaware Indian and Methodist minister who came to Indian Territory in 1867.

That sequence still shapes present-day Ketchum. Highway 85 approaches from the Craig County side, Grand Lake opens the southern edge to boating and fishing, and Ketchum Public Schools serve as the town’s central institution. The South Grand Lake Regional Airport is also part of the area’s transportation network. The 2020 census counted 471 residents, so Ketchum remains small in population even as its boundaries, lake access, school district, and airport connect it to a wider northeast Oklahoma recreation region. An old river crossing, a moved railroad settlement, and a modern reservoir all remain part of the same map.