Rock Island, OK

Rock Island is a Le Flore County town at the meeting of Oklahoma State Highways 112 and 120, about thirteen miles northeast of Poteau and close to the Arkansas line. The town began as Maney Junction, where two railroads crossed: the Fort Smith and Southern line arrived in 1886 and the Midland Valley added an east-west route in 1903–04. A post office named Rock Island opened in 1905, probably honoring Rock Island, Illinois. The rail junction placed the community inside the larger movement of timber, farm goods, and people through the Choctaw Nation.

Railroad history still gives Rock Island its best local landmark. The Jensen Tunnel, northeast of town, was built by the Fort Smith and Southern and is the only known railroad tunnel in Oklahoma. A marker on Highway 112 recalls the Civil War Battle of Backbone Mountain, adding another layer to the surrounding hills. Farming and ranching remain part of the economy, while many residents commute to Poteau or Fort Smith. Rock Island incorporated in 2004 after a long local process, but the town's bones are older: a pair of rail lines, a post office, a highway junction, and the mountain routes that connect eastern Oklahoma to Arkansas.