Cedar Prairie in the Civil War. Most citizens of Pocola are aware of the historical marker, “Battle of Devils Backbone Mountain.”

Pocola is a town in northeastern Le Flore County, Oklahoma, United States. It is part of the Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 4,056 at the 2010 census, a gain of 1.55 percent from 3,994 at the 2000. It is approximately 10 miles (16 km) from Fort Smith, Arkansas. Pocola is a Choctaw word meaning “ten.

70Ord. No. 894. “An ordinance accepting and annexing certain contiguous Territory in Sebastian County to city of Fort Smith,” Dec. 6, 1909.

The northern part of the tract is called “Coke’s Hill”; the middle part “Red Row” and the southern part “Arkoma”. “Coke’s Hill” is a shantytown built on the site of the old Fort. It is an eyesore, and on Sept. 14, 1929 the City Council of Fort Smith appropriated $10,000 to buy the title to it, but was unable to extinguish all the old titles, so it remains a ramshackle memory to an historic old landmark; an erstwhile refuge for criminals of Fort Smith, who until 1909, had only to cross the tracks of the Katy railroad to be safe from the city officials. Mr. H. S. Peck, City Engineer, was kind enough to spend an entire day in gathering data with me for this paper. It was through him that the City Clerk gave me copies of various city ordinances pertaining to Coke’s Hill, as well as showed me the minutes of the City Council of Fort Smith.