Pryor Creek

History

In the early 1800s, treaties with the Cherokee, Osage, and Choctaw gave the tribes allotments in Indian Territory in the region that would become Oklahoma. Captain Nathaniel Hale Pryor, who was married to an Osage woman and served as an agent to the Osage people, was among those settling northeastern Oklahoma. He established a trading post on the Grand River, shortly before the Union Mission was established southeast of present-day Chouteau in 1820. Pryor Creek is along the path of the Texas Road cattle trail, and the later Jefferson Highway of the early National Trail System, both roughly along the route of U.S. Route 69 through Oklahoma today. In 1870, the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad started construction in the Cherokee Nation along the Kansas border, laying tracks to Texas. By June 1871, the railroad reached present-day Pryor Creek. A post office was eventually established naming the town Coo-y-yah, Indian Territory. Coo-y-yah is Cherokee for "place of the huckleberries". The official name of the city government is still Pryor Creek despite a proposition put before voters in 1963 to change the name officially to Pryor. The Pryor tornado ranks as the fifth deadliest in Oklahoma history behind tornadoes at Woodward in 1947, Snyder in 1905, Peggs in 1920, and Antlers in 1945. The May 3, 1999, tornado at Midwest City caused more damage but fewer deaths. In 1951, voters approved the present city charter of a mayor-council government system, which provided for the election of a mayor, clerk, treasurer, police chief and eight councilors. The charter also established a cemetery, park, library board, and a municipal utility board, which oversees operations of the city-owned gas, water, electric and sewer systems.

Geography

Pryor is located in northeast Oklahoma at the intersection of U.S. Route 69 and Oklahoma State Highway 20. US-69 leads north to Vinita and south to Wagoner, while SH-20 leads east to Salina and west to Claremore. The stream known as Pryor Creek flows past the west and south sides of the city. }}

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  626
• European Starling

  Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  409
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  400
• Carolina Chickadee

  Poecile carolinensis (Audubon, 1834) · Aves
  395
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  393
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  367
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  366
• Carolina Wren

  Thryothorus ludovicianus (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  365

Most recent

• M 2.82 — 2024-03-23
  9 km SE of Foyil, Oklahoma
• M 2.7 — 2018-12-10
  1 km ENE of Zeb, Oklahoma
• M 2.7 — 2016-04-03
  Arkansas-Oklahoma border region
• M 2.7 — 2016-01-14
  7 km W of Talala, Oklahoma
• M 2.6 — 2015-09-03
  6 km WSW of Vera, Oklahoma
• M 2.6 — 2010-05-21
  2 km SW of Centerton, Arkansas