Sardis was a community in northern Pushmataha County,

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

. United States. The location is six miles northwest of Clayton. A

United States Post Office The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal serv ...

was established at Sardis, Indian Territory on February 20, 1905. It took its name from the nearby Sardis Indian Mission Church, which appears to have named itself after the Biblical city of

Sardis Sardis ( ) or Sardes ( ; Lydian language, Lydian: , romanized: ; ; ) was an ancient city best known as the capital of the Lydian Empire. After the fall of the Lydian Empire, it became the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, Persian Lydia (satrapy) ...

. At the time of its founding, Sardis was located in

Jack's Fork County {{More footnotes, date=July 2022 Jack's Fork County, also known as Jack Fork County, was a political subdivision of the Choctaw Nation of Indian Territory. The county formed part of the nation's Pushmataha District, or Third District, one of three ...

, a part of the

Pushmataha District Pushmataha District was one of three provinces, or districts, comprising the former Choctaw Nation in the Indian Territory. Also called the Third District, it encompassed the southwestern one-third of the nation. The Pushmataha District was named ...

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 ...

. During the early 1980s, Jack’s Fork Creek was impounded by the

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wor ...

, who built Sardis Lake. The lake, a flood control project, also held tourism potential and

Oklahoma State Highway 43 State Highway 43 (SH-43 or OK-43) is a state highway in Oklahoma, United States. It runs 65.3 miles west-to-east through Coal, Atoka, Pushmataha and Pittsburg counties. Route description SH-43 begins at US-75/ SH-3 in Coalgate, the seat o ...

was straightened and paved with blacktop from the

interchange Interchange may refer to: Transport * Interchange (road), a collection of ramps, exits, and entrances between two or more highways * Interchange (freight rail), the transfer of freight cars between railroad companies * Interchange station, a rai ...

at Daisy on the

Indian Nation Turnpike The Indian Nation Turnpike, also designated State Highway 375 (SH-375), is a controlled-access highway, controlled-access toll road in southeastern Oklahoma, United States, running between Hugo, Oklahoma, Hugo and Henryetta, Oklahoma, Henryetta ...

to the lake, where it crosses the dam and connects to

Oklahoma State Highway 2 State Highway 2, abbreviated SH-2 or OK-2, is a designation for two distinct highways maintained by the United States, U.S. state of Oklahoma. Though they were once connected, the middle section of highway was Concurrency (road), concurrent wit ...

. This allowed for easier road connections to other parts of the state highway network. At this writing, tourism has not been promoted heavily or its economic benefits realized at the lake. In order to make way for the lake, the community of Sardis was emptied. Its cemetery, now located on an island in the lake connected to the shore by a short causeway, is at the approximate location as it was originally, but the tombstones now sit on landfill and are many feet higher than originally. The graves they denote are below the bottom of the lake. The earliest gravestones are dated 1875, a testament to the community’s early establishment.''Pushmataha County Cemeteries'', pp. 156-159. Sardis was located in the picturesque Jack’s Fork Creek ''valley'', just above its junction with the

Kiamichi River The Kiamichi River is a river in southeastern Oklahoma, United States of America. A tributary of the Red River of the South, its headwaters rise on Pine Mountain in the Ouachita Mountains near the Arkansas border. From its source in Polk County, ...

valley, framed by the slopes of Flagpole Mountain (1,562 ft.) on the south and the Potato Hills—a geographic curiosity due to their highly irregular shapes—on the north.

References

Ghost towns in Oklahoma Geography of Pushmataha County, Oklahoma Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma {{Oklahoma-geo-stub

See also

References