McAlester PWA

McAlester PWA Municipal Water Report Info

McAlester is a thriving city in Pittsburg County, Oklahoma with a population of 17,783 as recorded in the 2000 census. As the county seat and the largest city within the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, McAlester holds significant regional importance.

The city takes its name from J.J. McAlester, a notable figure who later became Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma and was immortalized in the novel True Grit, which inspired films in both 1969 and 2010. McAlester is well-known for housing the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, famously referred to as "Big Mac" by many Oklahomans and mentioned in the opening of Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.

McAlester serves as home to workers from the nearby McAlester Army Ammunition Plant, a critical facility that manufactures bombs for the United States military. In 1998, the Defense Ammunition Center (DAC) relocated from Savanna, Illinois to McAlester.

The city has produced several prominent political figures, including U.S. Speaker of the House Carl Albert, longtime Oklahoma State Senator Gene Stipe, former Oklahoma Governor George Nigh, and Oklahoma Supreme Court Chief Justice Steven W. Taylor. McAlester maintains its historical reputation as the "Capital of Little Dixie" due to its traditional Democratic political leanings.

The settlement originated at the intersection of the California Road and Texas Road in Tobucksy County of the Choctaw Nation. James Perry established the original settlement in 1838, naming it Perryville. During the Civil War, the Choctaw aligned with the Confederate States of America, and Perryville became an important supply depot. On August 26, 1863, Union forces destroyed the Confederate weapons station during the Battle of Perryville Indian Territory.

After the war, Captain James Jackson McAlester, leveraging his knowledge of local coal deposits, established a trading post in the area in 1869. With the arrival of the Katy Railroad in 1872, businesses from Perryville relocated to be near the McAlester Rail Depot, marking Perryville's decline and McAlester's rise.

The communities of McAlester and South McAlester operated separately until 1907, when the United States Congress passed an Act incorporating them as a single municipality just months before Oklahoma Statehood. J.J. McAlester played a crucial role in developing the coal mining industry and establishing various utilities in the town.

In recent history, McAlester faced challenges from devastating ice storms in December 2000 and January 2007, which left residents without power and water for extended periods. The city was also the site of Terry Nichols' 2004 trial on Oklahoma state charges related to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.