IDABEL, Okla. — So many North Texas residents cross the border into McCurtain County in far southeast Oklahoma each week that the area has earned the nickname “Dallas-Fort Worth Hamptons.”
With their clean rivers and lakes, these forested foothills of the Ouchita Mountains are dotted with luxury cabins, and the tourism boom of the past two decades has fueled a renaissance in the region. Jobs are no longer limited to the lumber industry or the chicken processing plant, and parents are more optimistic that their children will not have to leave the community to find work.
But growing optimism about the county’s future took a hit last week when the local newspaper identified several county officials, including Sheriff Kevin Clardy and a county commissioner, who were caught on tape arguing about the death of journalists and the lynching of black people. One commissioner has already resigned, and elected officials, including Idabel’s mayor and Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, have called for others to step down.
“Just hearing it on audio and coming from the mouths of our elected officials at a meeting, it made my stomach turn,” said Lonnie Watson, a lifelong county resident and 7th grade teacher and coach who it is black “It was shocking. It was sad. It hurt. Just hearing the hate … it was stressful.”
For its part, the sheriff’s office has only issued a formal statement since the McCurtain Gazette-News published the story last weekend in which the sheriff’s office did not address the statements, but stated that the recording was obtained illegally.
“Unfortunately, all of our lawyers are telling us to shut up,” Undersheriff Mike Manning told The Associated Press on Thursday, without further comment. “I would love for everyone to hear both sides of the story.” On Friday, the governor, who has called for Clardy and others involved in the taped conversation to resign, released a letter he sent to the state attorney general. Gentner Drummond, asking him to investigate Clardy’s possible removal from office for willful misconduct.
“It is my understanding that Sheriff Clardy, at the very least, willfully failed or diligently and faithfully neglected to ‘maintain and preserve the peace’ of McCurtain County,” according to the letter signed by Stitt. “Should you find that there is reasonable cause for this complaint, I urge you to initiate proceedings to remove Sheriff Clardy from office.”
A spokesman for Drummond said investigators are already looking into the case.
“The Attorney General’s Office is investigating this case. Attorney General Drummond will review the governor’s letter and take appropriate action,” Drummond spokesman Phil Bacharach said.
While many county residents say the racist comments are a throwback to a bygone era, they still worry about the negative repercussions the incident will have on the community’s reputation.
“We have concerns. We do. Anyone in their right mind would,” said Tommy “Blue” McDaniel, owner and operator of the county’s first legal distillery, Hochatown Distilling, in the heart of the county’s tourist region. “But that stuff down there is a few people It’s not what McCurtain County is, and it’s definitely not what Hochatown is.
“It’s a diverse community, a welcoming community.”
McDaniel’s assessment was echoed by many in the county. With a population of about 31,000 and bordering Arkansas and Texas, the county is a part of the state known as “Little Dixie” due to the influence in the area of white southerners who immigrated there after the Civil War . Although about 60% of the county is white, there are significant numbers of Native Americans (18%), blacks (8%), and Hispanics (7%).
Like many communities across the country, especially in the South, cities in McCurtain County were historically segregated, but have become more integrated since the 1960s. Idabel, the county seat, was the site of racial violence in 1980 when a riot broke out after a local black teenager was fatally shot outside an all-white club. Tensions grew so high that martial law was declared and the governor called in the National Guard, said Kenny Sivard, a local historian.
“What didn’t help was the Imperial Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan coming down to the Idabel courthouse and making his appearance,” Sivard said. “That didn’t help at all, as you can imagine.”
The county also has a long history of lawlessness dating back to pre-statehood days in 1907, when Oklahoma was Indian Territory and outlaws took refuge in the mountainous region, said Bob Burke, a County native. McCurtain who has written more than 100 non-fiction books about Oklahoma and its people.
With its clean rivers and remote locations, the area also became a haven for moonshiners who set up stills in the densely forested hills. This reputation for operating outside the law continued into the latter part of the 20th century, when the methamphetamine epidemic swept the area. Even today, although Oklahoma in 2002 became the last state to ban cockfighting, animal rights activists say the blood sport still thrives in the region and that forces of the local order sometimes turn a blind eye. A state lawmaker in nearby Atoka County is still working to reduce penalties for cockfighting.
Still, McCurtain County has worked hard to shed its reputation for lawlessness and racial strife, helped in large part by the construction of Broken Bow Lake in the heart of the county in the late 1960s. Fed by the Mountain Fork River, the clear lake surrounded by wooded hills has been a major tourist attraction that continues to this day.
The Choctaw Nation’s historic reservation spans the entire county and most of southern Oklahoma, and the tribe has begun construction on a $165 million, 200,000-square-foot (18,580 square meter) hotel and casino near the lake and Beavers Bend State Park. which is scheduled to open at the end of this year.
It’s projects like these and the growing tourism industry that residents like McDaniel, the distillery operator, hope McCurtain County will be known for.
“I see a bright future,” McDaniel said. “We’ve got some problems that we’re going to have to solve, but those problems, they’re some dying vestiges. These are some dying cries of people here who want to preserve the old ways, but we’re moving forward, and forward doesn’t include what’s going on down there.”
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Follow Sean Murphy on Twitter: @apseanmurphy
