America

Overview

Named for a woman, not a nation

America sits in the pine woods of far southeastern Oklahoma, about seven miles southeast of Haworth and a few miles from both the Arkansas and Texas lines. The name came from America Arminda Stewart. Her husband Tom opened a post office on July 24, 1903, when this was still the Choctaw Nation, and named it for her. The Arkansas and Choctaw Railway had crossed the county the year before, and the line, soon part of the Frisco system, ran past the post office, where the postmaster hung the mail sack by the track so the train could take it without stopping.

The town itself came with the sawmill. William Spencer and his three brothers built it in 1907, and by 1910 about 200 people lived here, many of them in 40 houses the Spencers leased to mill hands. The prime timber was gone by 1911, a pattern repeated across McCurtain County, where the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture says the forests were cut within two decades of statehood. Spencer switched to a cotton gin and a general store, and cotton grown on the cleared land went out on the railroad.

Cotton couldn't hold the town. The Stewarts had already moved five miles south in 1916 to start a new place called Tom. Most families left in the 1920s, the gin closed in 1933, and the post office shut on February 15, 1944. Along the way the town got one footnote in crime history: Buck and Blanche Barrow, associates of Bonnie and Clyde, were married here on July 3, 1931.

Timeline

Sawmill, cotton gin, silence

1. 1902The Arkansas and Choctaw Railway, later part of the St. Louis and San Francisco, is built across what became McCurtain County.
2. Jul 24, 1903Tom Stewart opens a post office in the Choctaw Nation and names it for his wife, America Arminda Stewart.
3. 1907William Spencer and three brothers build a sawmill, and the town grows around it.
4. 1910About 200 people live in America. The Spencer family leases 40 houses to mill workers.
5. 1911The prime timber is cut and the mill closes. Spencer opens a cotton gin and a general store; cotton from the cleared land goes out by rail.
6. 1916Stewart moves about five miles south and founds Tom, named for himself, where he builds a store, school, mills and a church.
7. 1920sMost residents leave as cotton declines. Tom and America Stewart die on September 30, 1927, within six hours of each other.
8. Jul 3, 1931Buck and Blanche Barrow, associates of Bonnie and Clyde, marry in America.
9. 1933The cotton gin closes.
10. Feb 15, 1944The post office closes. The general store follows the next year, by both Wikipedia and 405 Magazine.
11. 2010–2013A 405 Magazine writer finds one family still living there, no main street and no trace of the depot or the metal "AMERICA" sign that once stood by the tracks.

What's left

A crossing in the pines

The accounts we have disagree a little. Wikipedia, citing John Morris's 1977 Ghost Towns of Oklahoma, says two old houses and a railroad marker remain and that part of the townsite lies within the Ouachita National Forest. An undated listing names only a town sign on the tracks. M. J. Alexander, who drove in for 405 Magazine and photographed a resident family there on July 1, 2010, found no main street, no depot and no trace of the white metal "AMERICA" sign that once told train crews where they were. The postmaster, she wrote, used to hang the mail sack by the track so the train could grab it without stopping. Nearly all the residents had gone; one told her, "Now our kids are the last ones left."

The current USGS topo map prints "Ouachita National Forest" beside the townsite, and the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation describes the forest's Tiak unit as 20,000 acres southeast of Idabel around Haworth and Tom, where Forest Service rules apply. The aerial image shows a handful of buildings beside the old railroad grade at the crossing, surrounded by pine plantation. We haven't been there, and we don't know which of those buildings date from the town.

• Two old houses (Wikipedia, citing a 1977 book)
• A family's home, still lived in (405 Magazine, 2013)
• The railroad grade through the townsite
• Railroad marker: standing per Wikipedia (1977 book) and an undated listing, gone per 405 Magazine (2013)

The historic maps below show more. The 1950 Bokhoma sheet marks the railroad as the San Francisco line, a handful of buildings on both sides of the crossing, a small pond and a dashed road running south. By the 1986 Idabel sheet the national forest lettering spreads across the townsite, with Bokhoma and Moon on the line to the west and the Caney Creek branches to the east.

Historic maps

America on USGS maps, 1950–1986

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

19501:24,00019861:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Idabel is the closest city, about 40 minutes away on OK 3. From Dallas it's about three hours forty minutes by I-30 and US 259. Both routes were computed from OpenStreetMap and haven't been driven by us. The last 1.6 miles are on a county road off OK 3.

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

Photos

Have photos of America?

We haven’t added photographs of America yet. If you’ve visited, share your photos and a field report below.

Visitor reports

Been to America?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

Thanks. Your report reached us, and we'll read it before it goes on the page.

Mill, lumber and company

More mill, lumber and company ghost towns

The nearest, in other states.

Guide

Graysonia

34.13, -93.44

Clark County, Arkansas

A company sawmill town that cut 150,000 board feet a day during World War I and was empty by 1950. The townsite is private timberland now, and this…

Private landMill, lumber and company

Guide

Monte Ne

36.29, -94.07

Benton County, Arkansas

A health resort and planned town built by the lawyer and author William "Coin" Harvey, with log hotels, a gondola and a pyramid that was never…

Mostly under Beaver LakeMill, lumber and company

All 51 mill, lumber and company ghost towns →

Nearby

Other sites near America

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Oklahoma index.

• Hochatown27.5 mi NW · McCurtain
• Slim36.9 mi NW · McCurtain
• Doaksville44.2 mi W · Choctaw
• Nolia57.2 mi NW · Pushmataha
• Cohn63.0 mi NW · Pushmataha
• Albion66.4 mi NW · Pushmataha
• Kiamichi67.1 mi NW · Pushmataha
• Rodney70.2 mi NW · Pushmataha

Sources

Sources and credits

1. Wikipedia, "America, Oklahoma", retrieved October 2026: location, the Spencer sawmill, 1910 population and the 40 houses, the gin and store, the Arkansas and Choctaw Railway, the 1920s decline, gin and store closures, the Barrow wedding, post office dates, the national forest and the remains (citing John Morris, Ghost Towns of Oklahoma, 1977), coordinates (GNIS).
2. M. J. Alexander, "The Rise and Fall of America, Oklahoma," 405 Magazine (June 25, 2013): the Stewarts and the naming, the Frisco line, the 1911 mill closure, cotton, the move to Tom, the Stewarts' deaths, the store closing the year after the post office, the missing sign and depot, the dirt road and the one family still there (photographed July 1, 2010).
3. Louis Coleman, "McCurtain County," The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture (updated February 2024): the 1902 railway and its Frisco successor, the timber cut within two decades of statehood, cotton's rise and collapse, the Ouachita National Forest.
4. Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, "Ouachita WMA – McCurtain & Tiak Units": the Tiak unit's location around Haworth and Tom, its 20,000 acres, Forest Service regulations.
5. Wikipedia, "Tom, Oklahoma" and "Haworth, Oklahoma": coordinates for the map.
6. ghosttowns.com, "America": fact-sheet fields (county, roads, climate, best time, remains).
7. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

• Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Bokhoma 1950, 1:24,000; Idabel 1986, 1:100,000.