Valliant’s post office opened in 1902, and 1 of its places is on the National Register
Most of Valliant was built recently: 6% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1977. Its Register listing is the Valliant School Gymnasium-Auditorium. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1916 on, and the census since 1910.
Valliant was founded June 2, 1902, in what was the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory, and named for Frank W. Valliant, a chief divisional engineer for the Arkansas and Choctaw Railway then being constructed in the area. At the time of its founding, Valliant was located in Towson County, a part of the Apukshunnubbee District, one of three administrative super-regions comprising the Choctaw Nation.
A cotton gin opened in 1903, and continued operation until the 1930s. In 1904, the town incorporated and elected its first mayor. A newspaper began publishing in 1905. By 1920, the community had two banks, three hotels and nearly 20 other businesses.
Passages that mention Valliant, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The Choctaw freedmen and the story of Oak Hill industrial academy, Valliant, McCurtain County, Oklahoma, now called the Alice Lee Elliott memorial1914 · page 101Read the page →
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The services at first were held in the home and later in an arbor at the home of Henry Crittenden, one mile east of the present town of Valliant, and now known as the home of James and Johnson Shoals. After a few years the place of meeting was transferred to an arbor about two miles southwest of Crittenden's, and two years later, 1878, to the Oak Hill schoolhouse, a frame building erected that year on the main east and west road north of Red river. It was
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The Choctaw freedmen and the story of Oak Hill industrial academy, Valliant, McCurtain County, Oklahoma, now called the Alice Lee Elliott memorial1914 · page 12Read the page →
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VALLIANT Valliant was founded in 1902, and was so named in honor of one of the surveyors of the Hope and Ardmore, a branch of the Frisco railway. It is located in the west end of McCurtain county eight miles north of Red river. It has now a population of 1,000 and a branch railroad running northward.
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
By decade
Valliant, decade by decade
One decade in the archive so far: the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
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 Wikimedia Commons (2), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1902
2004
