Timeline: How Boggy Depot State Park Returned to Its Tribal Roots

• Joe Wertz
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  Joe Wertz was a reporter and managing editor for StateImpact Oklahoma from 2011-2019. He reported on energy and environment issues for national NPR audiences and other national outlets. He previously worked as a managing editor, assistant editor and staff reporter at several major Oklahoma newspapers and studied journalism at the University of Central Oklahoma.

Faced with budget cuts, the Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation in March announced plans to strip seven sites from its roster of state parks, which included Boggy Depot, a park that memorializes a town with significant historic and cultural ties to Oklahoma.

Despite losing its state park status, the site will remain open thanks to an agreement by the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations, which assumed control of the park and nearby cemetery in mid-August.

To learn more about the historic site, click, zoom and explore our interactive timeline below.