Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Idabel, OK

Idabel is the county seat and largest city of McCurtain County, in Oklahoma's southeastern corner, a tourist region known as Choctaw Country.

Idabel was established in 1902 as a station on the Arkansas and Choctaw Railway, in what was then Bok Tuklo County of the Choctaw Nation in Indian Territory.

The town was first named Purnell for railroad official Isaac Purnell, but postal officials rejected the name; its post office opened on December 15, 1902, under the name Bokhoma, a Choctaw word meaning "Red River."

Railroad officials then renamed the town Idabel, a compound of the names of Isaac Purnell's two daughters, Ida and Bell.

Idabel was designated the county seat of the newly created McCurtain County at Oklahoma statehood on November 16, 1907.

Idabel is nicknamed the "Dogwood Capital of Oklahoma."

The 2020 census counted 6,961 residents in Idabel, down slightly from 7,010 in 2010.

Idabel had 2,721 households in the 2020 census, and its occupied homes were split almost evenly between owners (51.2 percent) and renters (48.8 percent).

The Museum of the Red River in Idabel houses art and archaeology collections, including Acrocanthosaurus atokensis, the Oklahoma state dinosaur.

Idabel's Barnes-Stevenson House, a restored 1912 Victorian home, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, along with the city's Frisco Station, National Guard Armory, Rouleau Hotel and Spaulding-Olive House.