Biohazard and Crime Scene Remediation in Pocola, OK

Pocola is a town in northeastern Le Flore County, Oklahoma, and its name is the Choctaw word for "ten" — roughly the distance in miles from the town to Fort Smith, Arkansas.

Pocola is part of the Fort Smith, Arkansas–Oklahoma metropolitan area and sits about ten miles west of Fort Smith, just inside the Oklahoma state line.

A post office was established at Pocola, Indian Territory, on February 15, 1881, when the settlement lay in Skullyville County of the Moshulatubbee District of the Choctaw Nation.

The Civil War Battle of Devil's Backbone was fought near Pocola on September 1, 1863, and ended in a victory for the Union Army.

Coal mining came early to Pocola: Will Hartshorne opened a small mine in the 1880s and sold it to the Fort Smith and Western Coal and Railway in 1896.

Pocola nearly faded away in the early twentieth century — its population fell to about 75 people by 1918, and its post office closed in 1916.

Pocola did not incorporate until 1963, when residents incorporated to gain water rights along the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System and to keep neighboring towns from annexing the area.

After incorporating, Pocola annexed land until the town covered more than thirty square miles, one of the largest municipal areas of any small town in eastern Oklahoma.

Pocola's population climbed from 1,840 in 1970 to 3,268 in 1980, and the 2020 census counted 4,255 residents.

Pocola is home to Choctaw Casino & Resort Pocola, which opened in 1994 as a bingo hall and has grown into the largest employer in Le Flore County.