Poteau is the county seat of LeFlore County, Oklahoma, located in the far eastern part of the state near the Arkansas line and about a 25-minute drive from Fort Smith, Arkansas. The city sits where the broad Poteau River valley meets the Kiamichi Mountains, a subrange of the Ouachitas, giving it a setting of rolling timbered hills and open bottomland. As of the 2020 census, Poteau had a population of about 8,800, making it the commercial and governmental hub of a largely rural county. The area's economy was built in part on coal. At the turn of the twentieth century, rich coal deposits in the surrounding hills drew mining companies, workers, and rail connections to Poteau, and the town grew as a service center for the mines and surrounding farm country. That role as a regional seat endures: today the city anchors retail, health care, and public services for LeFlore County, while the forests and lakes that replaced the old mine workings have made outdoor recreation and tourism a growing part of local life. Two institutions define Poteau's identity. Carl Albert State College, founded in 1933 as Poteau Junior College and renamed for the longtime U.S. House Speaker from Oklahoma, has its main campus in the city and provides two-year degrees and workforce training. Above the skyline, Cavanal Hill rises to 1,999 feet and is locally promoted as the "World's Highest Hill," a title rooted in the technical distinction between a hill and a mountain that the summit narrowly misses. The hill hosts footraces and offers a panoramic overlook of the surrounding county. Poteau functions as a small regional town with a rural feel: most residents own their homes, commutes are short, and day-to-day life is centered on schools, churches, and community facilities such as the Donald W. Reynolds Community Center. Its location at the foot of the mountains also makes it a convenient base for the Talimena National Scenic Byway, Wister State Park, and the Ouachita National Forest, giving residents easy access to some of Oklahoma's most scenic public land.