Cookson is a community and census-designated place in the Cookson Hills of Cherokee County, Oklahoma, on the northeast side of Lake Tenkiller. The community's name comes from John H. Cookson, its first postmaster when the post office opened in 1895, and it sits within a landscape that has shaped Oklahoma's history and folklore. The Cookson Hills are the southernmost extension of the Boston Mountains and the Ozark Plateau, with elevations reaching about 1,500 feet, and the Illinois River, the area's major waterway, runs through the range. That rugged hill country has carried more than one identity. The Cookson Hills were once part of the Cherokee Nation's Tahlequah District, and in the twentieth century they gained a second, more colorful reputation as the refuge of Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd, the notorious Depression-era bank robber. Today the hills are better known for recreation, anchored by Tenkiller Ferry Lake, a clear, bluff-lined reservoir on the Illinois River that draws anglers, boaters, and campers from across the region. With about 826 residents counted in the 2020 census, Cookson remains small and rural, its population skewed toward retirees and seasonal and recreational property owners. Students attend Keys Public Schools, a district that consolidated Cookson's one-room schools and its neighbors when Lake Tenkiller was created. Tahlequah, the Cherokee Nation capital and county seat, lies roughly eighteen miles away for shopping, medical care, and Northeastern State University. For buyers, Cookson offers lakefront and hill-country living in the Ozarks, with the clear water of Tenkiller and the quiet of the surrounding forest as its defining amenities.