Kiamichi Country, Oklahoma

Tuskahoma, Bokchito, Kiamichi, Little River and Moon. Even the map reads like poetry in Southern Oklahoma, a timeless world where the gentle Ouachita mountains are shaded blue and rivers run wild. The name Ouachita comes from the Choctaw words Owa chito which means "big hunt" -- a tribute to the abundance of wildlife that still holds true. Deer, owls, raccoons, bobcats, red and gray fox and a hundred species of birds still flourish in the pristine wilderness; flying squirrels skitter along the treetops and black bears lumber out in spring to sun themselves on rocks. When the federal government relocated the Choctaw tribe to Indian Territory in the 1830s, Chief Pushmataha declared: "We have acquired from the U.S. here the best remaining territory west of the Mississippi." The natural barriers of the Winding Stair Mountains, the southern Kiamichis, the Jack Fork and San Bois Mountains created a remote world in southeastern Oklahoma, green and deep as the inside of an emerald. Moss beards the cypress trees that grow on the banks of the Mountain Fork River in Beavers Bend Resort Park and pine needles carpet the forest floor.