Boggy Depot (Old Boggy Depot)

Cyrus Harris was born in 1817 near Pontotoc, Mississippi, on the estate of his grandmother Molly Colbert Gunn. Fluent in English and Chickasaw, he interpreted in the removal talks before moving west in November 1837. When the Chickasaw Nation adopted its constitution of 1856 and no candidate won a majority, the legislature chose him its first governor by one vote, and he went on to serve five two-year terms, retiring in 1874. Of the town itself, the last important building, Allen Wright's house, burned on March 28, 1952.

What the plaque says

Boggy Depot Site of town noted for distin- guished citizens in state history. 1st house built 1837 by Cyrus Harris, later Chickasaw gover- nor. Later Choctaw capital and Overland Mail stage stand to San Francisco (1858-61). Home of Principal Chief Allen Wright, Choctaw, who named Oklahoma in 1866. Rev. Cyrus Kingsbury, noted missionary buried here. Oklahoma Historical Society 178-1995

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Chickasaw National Capitol — 22 mi
  The red granite capitol the Chickasaw Nation finished at Tishomingo in 1898, forced out of at statehood, used as the county courthouse for most of a century and reclaimed by the Nation in 1992.

More markers nearby

• Boggy Depot (Butterfield Overland Mail) — 3.5 mi
• Oklahoma's First Catholic Church — 10 mi
• Atoka — 12 mi
• Civil War Burial Site — 12 mi