Cherokee history is not a preface to a resort
The reservoir is a twentieth-century creation; Cherokee history is much older and continues today. Cherokee Nation’s own history describes how some Cherokees migrated west before the Trail of Tears, moving in 1828 to a reservation in what is now eastern Oklahoma. In 1838, U.S. troops began the forced removal of the Cherokees who had remained in their ancestral homelands in the Southeast. [1]
After survivors reached Indian Territory, they reunited with those who had come earlier. In 1839 the Nation adopted a new constitution. Schools, government institutions, businesses and the Cherokee Advocate newspaper were part of the rebuilding. Cherokee Nation remains a living sovereign nation, not simply a chapter that ended when Oklahoma became a state. [1]
The lake project itself also has a Cherokee connection: Henry Holderman, a Cherokee tribal member, spent years advocating the Grand River dam that GRDA would eventually build. [2]
This short section is a beginning, not a complete history of the Indigenous peoples of northeastern Oklahoma. The Nation’s own account is linked below so readers can go beyond the reservoir story.
Old Bernice: a town moved for the lake
The original Bernice began in 1912 in the Horse Creek basin along the Missouri, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway. It developed as a railroad and agricultural community, with businesses serving the surrounding countryside. [3]
Pensacola Dam would put that townsite in the new lake’s flood area. Gove Bunch and other residents found another site, which was platted on December 20, 1939. By summer 1940, salvageable homes and buildings had been moved out of Old Bernice as the reservoir rose. The town’s name and community survived on higher ground. [3]
Ketchum: underwater later, moved earlier
Ketchum’s first site was established in 1899 beside the Grand River. It was named for James Ketchum, a Delaware Methodist minister. That original location is now beneath Grand Lake. [4]
But the town did not first move because of Pensacola Dam. A new Ketchum townsite was platted near the railroad in late 1912, and businesses shifted there over the following years. That makes Ketchum an important correction to the often-repeated idea that every submerged townsite was evacuated for the reservoir. [4]
Bernice
A lake-driven relocation.
New site platted in 1939; buildings moved by summer 1940. [3]
Ketchum
An earlier railroad move.
New site platted in 1912; the first site was flooded later. [4]
Disney: a dam-era town
At the east end of Pensacola Dam, Disney grew with the construction activity. Its post office, established in 1938, was named for U.S. Representative Wesley E. Disney—not Walt Disney. The Oklahoma Historical Society dates C. D. Armstrong’s founding of the planned town to November 12, 1939. [5]
Before the dam provided the crossing, ferries connected Disney and Langley. Visitors could even take boat excursions to view the construction site. The dam was already drawing an audience before the lake became a recreation destination. [5]