The county seat of McCurtain County is Idabel. It is the largest city / town in the extreme southeast corner of Oklahoma with a population of about 7000. Idabel is only about 20 miles from Texas and about 20 miles from Arkansas, just a couple of hours from the Dallas – Fort Worth, Texas area and about 3 to 3 ½ hours from the Oklahoma City area or from Tulsa, Oklahoma according to Internet travel sites. I think that most of the time, it takes folks just a tad longer to drive those distances, but the point is that we’re close enough for folks in the larger cities to get here in a relatively short time period to enjoy the great rivers, lakes, and countryside that we have to offer.
Southeast Oklahoma is the fisherman’s paradise and the hunters dream. If you want to fish the corp of engineer’s lakes, come to Southeast Oklahoma for Broken Bow Lake, Pine Creek Lake, and Hugo Lake. If you want to live on the water, own the shore and fish out the back door, come to Raymond Gary Lake for waterfront property. Raymond Gary Lake is only a short driving distance to both Hugo Lake and Pine Creek Lake. So even though Raymond Gary is a “no wake” excellent fishing lake, if you want to ski, etc., you can be on a larger lake in a matter of minutes, while living on the water at Raymond Gary. There are acres and acres of hunting land in both McCurtain and Choctaw Counties.