Valliant, OK

Valliant is a McCurtain County town where the 2020 census counted 819 residents. The Choctaw Townsite Commission surveyed and platted it on June 2, 1902, as the Arkansas and Choctaw Railway crossed the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory. The town took its name from Frank W. Valliant, a railroad official, and a post office opened that June. By the early 1920s, its brick business district held two banks, nineteen other businesses, three hotels, and several cafes. Cotton and grain led the early farm economy before pasture and forage became more important.

Rail and timber gave Valliant a second economic chapter. The Kiamichi Railroad uses the former Frisco roadbed, and the Texas, Oklahoma and Eastern Railroad reaches its western terminus here. Weyerhaeuser built a containerboard plant in 1970, making wood processing part of the town's modern working map. Valliant Public Schools serves local students, U.S. 70 runs through town, Pine Creek Lake lies about eight miles north, and the Red River is six miles south. The nearby Alice Lee Elliott Memorial Academy, which operated from 1886 to 1936 for children of freed Black slaves, adds another important layer to Valliant's history.