Stigler, OK

Stigler is the Haskell County seat in southeastern Oklahoma, where State Highways 9 and 82 cross in the town’s center. Joseph S. Stigler founded the settlement in 1889 as Newman, named for a physician he hoped would draw more residents; the post office adopted Stigler in 1893. The Midland Valley Railroad arrived in 1904, bringing cotton gins, mills, banks, newspapers, and a larger business district. Stigler won the county-seat competition at Oklahoma statehood in 1907, and the city had 2,703 residents in 2020. Agriculture carried the town through its first decades, first through cotton and corn and later through livestock.

Eufaula Lake and Robert S. Kerr Reservoir changed the regional map after World War II, adding lake recreation and tourism alongside the courthouse and farm trade. The Haskell County Courthouse and Stigler School Gymnasium-Auditorium remain part of the town’s historic center, while State Highway 82 runs east toward Lequire and the county’s rural communities. Stigler is a practical county hub with railroad beginnings, courthouse duties, and reservoir country close by.