Keota is a small town in the southeastern corner of Haskell County, Oklahoma, set in the wooded, gently rolling hills where the Ozark foothills meet the Arkansas River valley. It sits east of Stigler, the county seat, and south of the Arkansas River, in a region long associated with the Choctaw Nation and with coal and timber. The surrounding countryside mixes pasture, hardwood forest, and the lake country of eastern Oklahoma. The town was founded in 1904 by the land company of the Midland Valley Railroad, during the waning days of the Choctaw Nation in Indian Territory. The post office opened the following year, and in 1907 Keota, like the surrounding communities, became part of the new state of Oklahoma. A weekly newspaper, The Keota Record, began publishing in 1910 and has served the town for more than a century. Keota's economic history tracks the rise and fall of rail and river transport. The Midland Valley line carried freight and passengers through town, and later the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System brought a short-lived Port of Keota to the nearby river, drawing light industry at the end of the twentieth century. The railroad has long since been abandoned, and little remains of the port beyond a boat launch, but the town's layout and character still reflect its railroad founding. Today Keota is a quiet residential and agricultural community of roughly 440 people. Its small K–12 school district keeps education local, and the nearby Otter Creek Archaeological Site, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, attests to the area's long human history. Lake Eufaula, Oklahoma's largest reservoir, lies within easy reach for boating and fishing, and Stigler provides the county's commercial and civic center. For residents, Keota offers a small-town pace, deep local roots, and ready access to the recreation of eastern Oklahoma's lake and river country.