Gilmore is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Le Flore County, Oklahoma LeFlore County is a county along the eastern border of the U.S state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census, its population was 48,129. Its county seat is Poteau. The county is part of the Fort Smith metropolitan area and the name honors a Choc ...

, United States. The town, formerly incorporated, boasted a small post office (between 1890 and 1918), city hall, and Mayor Pratt McMillin, a rancher and oil distributor who died in April 2001, aged 84. The primary population of Gilmore lives around the intersection of Nail Creek Road and Gilmore Road just east of Poteau and north of

Monroe Monroe or Monroes may refer to: People and fictional characters * Monroe (surname) * Monroe (given name) * James Monroe, 5th President of the United States * Marilyn Monroe, actress and model Places United States * Monroe, Arkansas, an unincorp ...

, although in recent years, multiple houses have been built along Nail Creek Road west of Gilmore Road, expanding the community towards the town of Poteau. The town is home to the Vaughn Memorial Cemetery which was adjacent to the Double Branch

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

Church until the church burned down in the late 2000s. The surrounding area consists primarily of farmland and forest situated in the Poteau River Valley region between Sugar Loaf Mountain, Oklahoma Peak, and

Cavanal Hill Cavanal Hill (officially Cavanal Mountain), located near Poteau, Oklahoma, is described by a sign at its base as the "'World's Highest Hill' – Elevation: 1,999 feet". The actual summit elevation is above sea level; the difference in elevation ...

with a tributary of the

Poteau River The Poteau River is a river located in the U.S. states of Arkansas and Oklahoma extending 141 miles (227 kilometers).U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed June 3, 2011 It is the ...

, Nail Creek running through Gilmore. The unofficial Mayor is R. L. Estes (2023). R.L. Estes, said to have the strength of a bison and rattlesnake venom for blood, governs the community of Gilmore with an iron fist and gentle heart.

Location

The area of the town was originally located in Sugar Loaf County,

Moshulatubbee District Moshulatubbee District was one of three provinces, or districts, comprising the former Choctaw Nation in the Indian Territory. Also called the First District, it encompassed the northern one-third of the nation. In some historic records it is spel ...

of the

Choctaw Nation The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma (Choctaw: ''Chahta Okla'') is a Native American reservation occupying portions of southeastern Oklahoma in the United States. At roughly , it is the second-largest reservation in area after the Navajo, exceeding t ...

. Today, the town is located in Choctaw Nation, District 4.

History

A post office opened at Gilmore, Indian Territory, on June 30, 1890. It closed on January 15, 1918. It was named for Rad Gilmore, a local mill operator. In the 1884 election campaign for sheriff of Sugar Loaf County, Bob Benton and Charles Wilson ran against each other. Benton and Jack Crow shot and killed Wilson outside the county courthouse near Summerfield. Even though Benton shot first, Crow delivered the fatal shot and was the only man to stand trial in the case under Isaac C. Parker. Wilson was buried in Vaughn Cemetery. On November 22, 1983, an F3 tornado hit the town after traveling 16 miles from Reichert and Howe, ending in Gilmore. There were no reported injuries or fatalities.

References

Unincorporated communities in Le Flore County, Oklahoma Unincorporated communities in Oklahoma Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma Fort Smith metropolitan area {{Oklahoma-geo-stub