Tahlequah, Oklahoma

The First Telephone

Here in September, 1885, the first telephone in Oklahoma was connected for service. It was the first telephone in the Mississippi Valley west of St. Louis. The company was organized by a group of Cherokees, namely, D.W. Lipe, L.B. Bell, R.M. Wolfe, J.S. Stapler, J.B. Stapler, and E.D. Hicks.

Monument to John Ross

John Ross 1790-1866

Principal Chief of the Cherokee, 1828 - 1866

Born October 3, 1790 in Turkeytown, Alabama, the son of a one-quarter Cherokee maiden and a Scotsman, John Ross was elected as the first Principal Chief of the Cherokee Indians in 1828

Murrell Home

The Murrell Home was built in the new Cherokee Nation about 1845 by George M. Murrell. Murrell was a native Virginain who married Minerva Ross in 1834. Minerva was a member of a wealthy mixed-blood Cherokee/Scottish family, and the niece of Chief John Ross.

Monument to General Stand Watie

- In Honor of -

General Stand Watie

Self-Guided Tour of Historic Tahlequah

History is one of Tahlequah's most valuable resources, much of it in the history of the Cherokee Nation ... to a Civil War cabin ... to homes of townspeople at the turn of the century.