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History · Etta

Etta’s post office opened in 1905

Most of Etta was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1989. Below: maps from 1898 on.

1905first post office
0on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Etta began

When was Etta founded?

1905

The Etta post office opened in 1905, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 80121 years
Founding year: the first Etta post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Etta’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Etta are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.On the map since 18983 editions of the USGS map, 1898 to 1973. Watch Etta change.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Etta’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Etta’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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On the map

Etta on the map, 1898 to 1973

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Etta. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Etta on the 1898 USGS mapEtta on the 1901 USGS mapEtta on the 1973 USGS map1898Tahlequah sheet · 1:125,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Etta.

The story so far

Etta, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Etta yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Etta is a census-designated place (CDP) in Cherokee County, Oklahoma, United States, within the Cherokee Nation. It was first listed as a CDP prior to the 2020 census. As of the 2020 census, Etta had a population of 80. The CDP is in eastern Cherokee County, on the east bank of the Illinois River, extending from the Baron Fork in the north to downstream from the Etta Bend Public Use Area in the south, by which point the river is impounded as Tenkiller Ferry Lake. The CDP is bordered to the north by Welling, to the east by Caney, and to the southwest by Tenkiller. The CDP is bordered across the Illinois River by Keys to the southwest and Park Hill to the northwest. By road, Etta is 11 miles …

Its first post office opened in 1905.

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

Timeline

Etta, 1898 to 1922

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1898On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  3. 20th century
  4. 1905Post officeThe Etta post office opens
  5. 1922Post officeThe Etta post office closes
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Etta had its own post office from 1905 to 1922.

Etta
1905–1922
19001960today

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

WellingIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townPark Hill4 historic placesB−TenkillerIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townCaneyIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Etta’s history

What year was Etta founded?

The Etta post office opened in 1905, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.