The Cherokee National Jail or Cherokee National Penitentiary (
Cherokee
The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...
: Ꮳꮃꭹ Ꭼꮎꮥꮎ Ꮧꮣꮝꮪꭹ) was built in 1874 as part of a governmental complex for the
Cherokee Nation
The Cherokee Nation ( or ) is the largest of three list of federally recognized tribes, federally recognized tribes of Cherokees in the United States. It includes people descended from members of the Cherokee Nation (1794–1907), Old Cheroke ...
in
Tahlequah, Oklahoma
Tahlequah ( ; , ) is a city in Cherokee County, Oklahoma located at the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. It is part of the Green Country region of Oklahoma and was established as a capital of the 19th-century Cherokee Nation in 1839, as p ...
. It served the Cherokee Nation until it was sold to
Cherokee County, Oklahoma
Cherokee County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 47,078. Its county seat is Tahlequah, Oklahoma, Tahlequah, which is also the capita ...
, which used it as a jail into the 1970s.
The prison, as built in 1874 for $6000, was a two-story building with a basement. The sandstone structure measures by . The second floor has been removed and replaced with a flat roof. There are two sandstone porches on the main level, front and back, with hipped roofs.
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
on June 28, 1974.
See also
*Oldest buildings in Oklahoma
This article lists the oldest extant buildings in Oklahoma, including extant buildings and structures constructed prior to and during the United States rule over Oklahoma. Only buildings built prior to 1870 are suitable for inclusion on this list ...
References
External links
Cherokee National Prison Museum
- Visit Cherokee Nation
*
Jails on the National Register of Historic Places in Oklahoma
Government buildings completed in 1874
Buildings and structures in Tahlequah, Oklahoma
Historic American Buildings Survey in Oklahoma
Museums in Cherokee County, Oklahoma
Jails in Oklahoma
Prison museums in the United States
National Register of Historic Places in Cherokee County, Oklahoma
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