Bowlegs, Oklahoma

You might think Bowlegs got its name from bowlegged cowboys, that physical appearance suggested from years of riding horses. You would be wrong.

The town in Seminole County was named after Billy Bowlegs, 1810-1864, a Seminole war leader who fought the United States in the Second and Third Seminole Wars. Billy Bolek, as he was also known, left Florida in 1858 after being paid $10,000 to go to the Seminole tribe in the Seminole Nation in Oklahoma. That $10,000 would equal around $306,000 today.

Wikipedia notes: “After reaching Indian Territory, Bowlegs became a leading chief there. He and his daughters became prominent land holders and slave owners. His slaveholding put him in the category of major Southern planters, those with more than 20 slaves.”

Bowlegs died in the Seminole Nation in 1864. He is buried in Fort Meyers, Fla.

Another Billy Bowlegs was a Union Army captain in the American Civil War. He was born Sonuk Mikko, and adopted the name of the more famous Billy Bowlegs. He, too, died in 1864, from smallpox. He is buried in Fort Gibson National Cemetery.

Bowleg’s population was 405 at the last census. Of those, 81 percent were white, 16 percent Native American. Fifteen percent of the families and 24 percent of the total population lived below the poverty line. 

The town was incorporated in 1975 and had its biggest population, 522, in 1980. Before incorporation, a 1926 oil boon brought more than 15,000 people to Bowkegs. 

https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=BO028