Lake Tenkiller is linked with the history of the Native American Indian. Home and hunting ground for first the Caddo and then Osage Indians before 1800. Around 1800, Lovely, an Indian Trader, made an agreement with the Osage to purchase a 100 mile square of land which he built a courthouse located at a site known as “Kildron” and after the Cherokee Indians arrived became known as Dwight Mission, the seat of governmental affairs.

In 1803, Captain Mark Bean, the first known white man to bring his family and settle here, built a farm on the bank of the Illinois River. The Treaty of 1817 between the US Government and a portion of the Cherokee Nation, started the Cherokee migration to the Oklahoma Territory. When the Eastern Cherokee Nation was driven from their home, on the “Trail of Tears” in 1838-1839, the two nations were reunited and the capital was re-established as Tahlequah. In 1829, Captain Mark Bean and other white pioneer settlers were force to move from this area by the US Government because the land was declared “Cherokee Land.”

Lake Tenkiller is a reservoir in eastern Oklahoma formed by the damming of the Illinois River. Between 1947 and 1952, the earth-fill dam was constructed by the U.S Corps of Engineers for the purposes of flood control and hydroelectric power generation. Lake Tenkiller was named after the Tenkillers, a prominent Cherokee family who owned the land and ferry that were obtained to build the dam.

Quick Fact:
Legend has it that the Cherokee warrior was given his name by the white soldiers and pioneers at Ft. Gibson during the Trail of Tears era because of the ten notches in his bow.