Durant () is a city in and the county seat of Bryan County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 18,589 in the 2020 census. It is the home of the headquarters of the Choctaw Nation, and is the largest settlement on the reservation, ranking ahead of McAlester and Poteau. Durant is the principal city of the Durant Micropolitan Statistical Area, which had a population of 46,067 in 2020. Durant is also part of the Dallas–Fort Worth Combined Statistical Area, anchoring the northern edge.
The city was founded by Dixon Durant, a Choctaw who lived in the area, after the MK&T railroad came through the Indian Territory in the early 1870s. It became the county seat of Bryan County in 1907 after Oklahoma statehood.
Durant is home to Southeastern Oklahoma State University and the headquarters of the Choctaw Nation. The city is officially known as the Magnolia Capital of Oklahoma. The city and its micropolitan are a major part of the Texoma region.
History
thumb|Bryan County Courthouse and Confederate monument
thumb|Durant City Hall
thumb|right|Durant in 1936
The Durant area was once claimed by both Spain and France before officially becoming part of the United States after the Louisiana Purchase and Adams–Onís Treaty. During the 1820s and 1830s the area was designated as part of the Choctaw Nation in the southern Indian Territory. During the Indian removals the Choctaws followed the Choctaw Trail of Tears from their ancestral homeland in Mississippi and Alabama into this area. The Choctaw Nation originally extended from the Mexican border in the west (now part of the Texas panhandle) to the Arkansas Territory in the east, from the Red River in the south to the South Canadian River in the north. In 1855, the Choctaw and Chickasaws formally divided their land into two separate nations, with Durant remaining in Choctaw territory on the east. Chickasaw land extended west to the boundary that would divide Indian Territory from Oklahoma Territory after passage of the Oklahoma Organic Act in 1890.
Fisher Durant's son Dixon Durant is recognized as the founder of Durant and is honored as its namesake. A minister, businessman and civic leader, Dixon Durant is credited with pastorates in local Presbyterian, Congregational and Methodist churches. He established the first store selling general merchandise in 1873, around the time of the 1872 creation of the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad (Katy Railroad) siding at Durant, which was the initial impetus for establishing the community. The U.S. Postal Service re-established the post office at the site as Durant on March 8, 1882, dropping the word "station" from the name. Beginning in 1882, the area was simply called Durant.
In 1895, a fire destroyed the original business district, which had spread along the Katy tracks.
Calvin Institute was opened in 1894, representing the first institute of higher education in the immediate area, which was an outgrowth of Presbyterian mission work among the Choctaw Indian nation. Its success led it being reopened as a larger school, Durant Presbyterian College in 1901, later renamed as Oklahoma Presbyterian College. After statehood became effective on November 16, 1907, the state legislature created the Southeastern State Normal School at Durant, which opened March 6, 1909. This school was renamed Southeastern State Teachers College in 1921, and renamed again in 1974 as the present Southeastern Oklahoma State University.
In 1904, Durant was named in a grand jury instruction as a sundown town where a notice had been posted warning African Americans not to stay after dark.
Bryan County was created from Choctaw lands in 1907, the same time as statehood, and was named after William Jennings Bryan. Bryan was nominated three times for President of the United States and at the age of 36 lost to William McKinley. He lost to McKinley again in 1900, and to William H. Taft in 1908. Woodrow Wilson appointed the county's namesake as United States Secretary of State in 1913.
The Oklahoma Constitutional Convention selected Durant as the county seat for Bryan County, Oklahoma, which would supersede Blue County at statehood. In 1908, a special election ratified this choice over three other candidates for the honor: Bokchito, Blue, and Sterrett (later renamed Calera).
Eleven people were killed in Durant by a tornado in April 1919.
The town's population grew from 2,969 in 1900 to 5,330 in 1910, 12,823 in 1990, and to 13,549 in 2000.
Geography
thumb|right|Aerial view of Durant
Durant is located in southeast Oklahoma, in a region named Texoma, or Texomaland, because of its short distance from Lake Texoma. The city is also part of Choctaw Country, formerly Kiamichi Country. Its geographic coordinates are (33.999834, −96.384825). It is approximately north of the Texas border at the Red River. Dallas is about south of Durant. The north edge of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, in McKinney, is about to the south.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city of Durant has a total area of , of which is land and , or 0.24%, is water.
Climate
Demographics
2020 census
As of the 2020 census, Durant had a population of 18,589. The median age was 32.1 years. 24.2% of residents were under the age of 18 and 14.6% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 93.0 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 91.0 males age 18 and over.
88.5% of residents lived in urban areas, while 11.5% lived in rural areas.
There were 7,189 households in Durant, of which 32.7% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 36.5% were married-couple households, 20.4% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 33.8% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 30.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
! Race !! Percent
|-
| White || 63.1%
|-
| Black or African American || 2.5%
|-
| American Indian and Alaska Native || 14.5%
|-
| Asian || 1.0%
|-
| Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander || <0.1%
|-
| Some other race || 4.4%
|-
| Two or more races || 14.4%
|-
| Hispanic or Latino (of any race) || 10.3%
|}
2010 census
As of the census of 2010, there were 15,856 people and 3,651 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 7,202 housing units. Nearly three fourths of the city's population (74.7%) self-identified as white, 13.3% self-identified as Native American, and 2.2% self-identified as black or African American. Less than a tenth of the population (7.1%) self-identified as Hispanic or Latino, regardless of race. Individuals of mixed Native American and white heritage accounted for 4.8% of the population. Less than 1% of the population was Asian or Pacific Islander.
2000 census
Durant's first census was recorded in 1900, and the population was 2,969.