Kiamichi Country facts for kids
"Kiamichi Country" was the Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation's official tourism designation for Southeastern Oklahoma until the name was changed to Choctaw Country in honor of the Choctaw Nation headquartered there. The current definition of Choctaw Country includes ten counties.
The name of Kiamichi was applied by early French explorers who came to the area in the early 18th Century. They discovered, among other things, a very large, noisy woodpecker that they called Kiamichi, their word for "loud bird." The area also contains the Kiamichi Mountains.
Due to an influx of southerners seeking less expensive frontier lands during the post-Civil War Reconstruction era, Kiamichi Country is more southern in culture than the rest of the state, and hence the area has also been called "Little Dixie".
Lightly populated, heavily mountainous and forested, the region is popular for outdoor recreation like water sports, mountain biking, hiking, hunting, horse back riding, fishing, and national scenic drives. The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma covers much of the area.
Images for kids
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The flag of the Choctaw Nation
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Ouachita Mountains in Southeast Oklahoma
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A view from Talimena Drive.
