Old Hardesty

Historical marker location:

Hardesty, Oklahoma

( Marker is on U.S. 412 west of 6th Street, on the left when traveling west.)

Old Hardesty was a trading post established in No Man's Land in 1886. It was named for Colonel Jack Hardesty, a local prominent rancher. Old Hardesty flourished while trail herds crossed the area but faded away when the Rock Island Railroad bypassed the community.

The Cherokee Nation is headquartered in Oklahoma and is one of the largest Native American tribes in the country. The tribe has a long and complex history in Oklahoma, including the forced removal of thousands of Cherokees from their ancestral lands in the 1830s, which became known as the Trail of Tears.