The Cookson Hills are in eastern

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

. They are an extension of the

Boston Mountains The Boston Mountains is a Level III ecoregion designated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. states of Arkansas and Oklahoma. Part of the Ozarks, the Boston Mountains are a deeply dissected plateau. The ecoregion is steepe ...

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

to the east and the southwestern margin of the

Ozark Plateau The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, as well as a small area in the southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cov ...

. They lie generally between Stilwell, Sallisaw and Tahlequah. The area became part of 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 the early 20th century until 1907, when Oklahoma became a state.Kevin J. Ware and Richard A. Marston. ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture'', "Cookson Hills." Oklahoma Historical Society
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History

The Depression-era bank robber Charles Arthur ("Pretty Boy") Floyd was raised in the Cookson Hills.

Geography

The region is a rugged

dissected plateau A dissected plateau is a plateau area that has been severely eroded, and the relief is sharp. Such an area may be referred to as mountainous, but dissected plateaus are distinguishable from orogenic mountain belts by the lack of fold (geology), ...

with numerous peaks and ridges up to above sea level. The Cooksons are drained by tributaries of the Illinois River (Arkansas). They are heavily wooded, predominantly

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

, with patches of

black walnut ''Juglans nigra'', the eastern American black walnut, is a species of deciduous tree in the walnut family, Juglandaceae, native to central and eastern North America, growing mostly in riparian zones. Black walnut is susceptible to thousand can ...

and

hickory Hickory is a common name for trees composing the genus ''Carya'', which includes 19 species accepted by ''Plants of the World Online''. Seven species are native to southeast Asia in China, Indochina, and northeastern India (Assam), and twelve ...

trees. The J. T. Nickel Family Nature and Wildlife Preserve is located in the Cookson Hills. It is the largest nature preserve in the region.

References

External links

Cookson Hills Area, TopoQuest

* {{Coord, 35.7, N, 94.8, W, format=dec, display=title, name=Cookson Hills, type:mountain_region:US-OK Hills of Oklahoma Landforms of the Ozarks U.S. Interior Highlands Landforms of Adair County, Oklahoma Landforms of Cherokee County, Oklahoma Landforms of Sequoyah County, Oklahoma