HOCHATOWN, Okla. — The picturesque fly-fishing, Oxford blue lake and eclectic assemblage of eateries along the main drag may not seem like it, but the mayor says Hochatown, Okla. shares a commonality with a 39-year-old country rapper with a teardrop face tattoo.
"If Jelly Roll said it right, it takes 20 years to be the overnight sensation," Mayor Dian Jordan said with a grin. "That's Hochatown! We've been here as this tourist destination for 20 years and we've just become this overnight sensation."
She's not kidding: the town of "about 242 people" has become a part of North Texas' extended backyard with tens of thousands of tourists now flocking to Hochatown for a weekend getaway from the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.
The influx of people brings welcome money and jobs to the town just north of Broken Bow, Jordan said, but also presents challenges that locals are scrambling to address as they expect the number of visitors coming to their town will only continue to climb.
The town that tourists built
Hochatown has simultaneously existed for centuries -- and fewer than two years.
The area was first settled by the Choctaw people in the 1830s after the Trail of Tears' forced march. In the late 1960s, the Army Corps of Engineers flooded the area to form Broken Bow Lake, which forced the relocation of the townspeople once again.
Hochatown was incorporated into its current iteration in November 2022, separating the town's identity from the more well-known Broken Bow ten miles to its south.
But the tourists have been coming for years -- first to small fishing cabins that gave way to more luxurious accommodations and exploded in popularity during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jordan said. Fly-fishing, boating and swimming continue to be the area's main draws.
"The nicer the cabins, the more people came," she explained. "The tourism just keeps doubling and every time it doubles it’s always a bigger number."
The New York Times reported last year that during the week, Hochatown has a population of 219 people, but on weekends, as many as 50,000 visitors, mostly from the Dallas area.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Hochatown had about 400 cabins for rent on Airbnb. There are now more than 2,400 — a 413% increase in five years, according to AirDNA,
Jordan said the tourists bring jobs and inspire entrepreneurship, but the quick growth created challenges.
"Everybody [used to do] whatever they wanted to – but that’s not feasible anymore and it’s not safe," she said.
Incorporation became a pathway to start addressing the resources the town was lacking: no paid fire department, no police department, a rural water system, no municipal wastewater infrastructure and -- most urgently -- no roads department to address crumbling cabin access points or widen the two-lane main drag.
"If you have a problem, there’s no one to call because there was nobody in charge and so we knew we had to incorporate to handle the growth," Jordan said.
New casino resort
The growth has only continued; this spring the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma -- descendants of the town's original settlers -- opened a new casino resort, dubbed Choctaw Landing.
Boasting 100 rooms and suites, a pool, multiple restaurants, a Buc-ees-style store and a 600-machine casino, the resort brings even more people to Hochatown -- it's been booked up every weekend since Memorial Day with mostly North Texas guests, said General Manager Amy Davis.
"I mean, Hochatown is on the map," Davis said. "It was just a secret spot for the locals, but now you see the cabins, the businesses that have just taken off."
The casino resort facilitates even more visitors: it has a 24-pump gas station at the end of its sprawling parking lot.
Choctaw Landing hired nearly 400 employees -- more than the population of Hochatown. "Housing was one of our worries," Davis said.
To help, the Choctaw Nation built an apartment building down the road to house the new workers coming to take care of all the new guests.
Challenges of growth
The housing issue alludes to a larger problem Hochatown now faces: keeping up with the flood of tourists who just keep coming.
"We want our locals to benefit from the tourism, and maybe they don’t always see that, but we can’t stop it," Jordan said through tears.
The town identified 12 priorities it needed to address, shortly after its incorporation. Road improvement topped the list, Jordan said.
Hochatown has collected its first taxes and hired its first employee -- but improvements take time.
Choctaw Landing contributed $7 million to add a turn lane and a red light outside its casino resort. It built a new electrical substation to power the hotel resort -- which also adds electrical stability to businesses and housing within a 6-mile radius, Davis said.
"We knew we were going to have to put into the infrastructure here because it was very lacking," she said.
The act of incorporation -- forming the town -- was one born of necessity, Jordan said. It also seems to be an attempt at self-determination in the face of a tourism onslaught.
"We finally have a voice and we are required to use that voice," Jordan said. "We are required to stand up for our town, do what is right, and let the people of the town decide what their destiny is going to be."