Pink, OK

Pink's name may be the first thing you ask about. The Pottawatomie County town lies ten miles west of Tecumseh on State Highway 9, inside the Citizen Potawatomi Nation's boundaries, and the 2020 census counted 2,087 residents. One explanation pairs Pink with nearby Brown, a matching set from the old township map. The settlement emerged after the 1891 land opening, cycled through several short-lived post offices, and spent its early years serving farmers through W. R. Stapp's gristmill and a general store.

Lake Thunderbird changed the roadside story. After the reservoir was impounded in 1964, a store and gas station picked up traffic from people heading toward the lake, while Pink remained a service point for the surrounding agricultural area. The town incorporated in the late 1960s and built a town hall and fire station in 1977. Pink Baptist Church formed on Highway 9 in 1949, and Tecumseh and Bethel schools now divide the education map. Archaeological work along the Little River has also found evidence of use at the Thunderbird Dam Site from roughly 500 B.C. to A.D. 1000. Pink is a modern highway town with a very old river corridor underneath it.