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History · Tamaha

Tamaha’s post office opened in 1884

Most of Tamaha was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1983. Below: maps from 1967 on and the census since 1900.

1884first post office
0on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Tamaha began

When was Tamaha founded?

1884

The Tamaha post office opened in 1884, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 237 in 19002020 census: 152142 years
Founding year: the first Tamaha post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Tamaha’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 Tamaha are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 501 in 1920; 152 people lived here in 2020.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Tamaha’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Tamaha’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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People over time

Tamaha, census by census

01002003004005001900192019401960198020002020Peak: 501

Peaked at 501 in 1920; 152 people lived here in 2020.

13 censuses, 1900–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Tamaha’s Wikipedia page.

The story

How Tamaha came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Tamaha.

Read it all →

Tamaha began as a riverboat landing on the Arkansas River in the 1830s. At the time of its founding, Tamaha was located in the Moshulatubbee District of the Choctaw Nation. Initially, the community was called Pleasant Bluff, after a nearby geographic feature. During the Civil War, the Union steamboat J. R. Williams was ambushed next to the town while it carried supplies for the Union army at Fort Gibson in Indian Territory from Fort Smith, Arkansas. It happened that, on June 15, 1864, Confederate forces under Colonel Stand Watie attacked with cannon and small arms fire as the ship negotiated a bend at Pleasant Bluff. The ship was crippled and ran aground, where the Confederates captured it. According to the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, the rusted skeleton of the steamer remains where it was grounded.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Tamaha, 1884 to 1967

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1884Post officeThe Tamaha post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1920CensusPopulation peaks at 501
  5. 1954Post officeThe Tamaha post office closes
  6. 1967On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
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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On the map

Tamaha on the map, 1967 to 1982

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

Tamaha on the 1967 USGS mapTamaha on the 1979 USGS mapTamaha on the 1982 USGS map1967Vian sheet · 1:24,000

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

Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Tamaha had its own post office from 1884 to 1954.

Tamaha
1884–1954
18801950today

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

Questions about Tamaha’s history

What year was Tamaha founded?

The Tamaha post office opened in 1884, 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 →
Start a conversation
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 Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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.