Jay is a city in and the county seat of Delaware County, Oklahoma, United States. As of the 2020 census, Jay had a population of 2,425. Almost 40% of its residents are Native American, thus Jay is home to numerous Cherokee tribal offices and a health clinic for the Delaware District of the Cherokee Nation. Jay has a council-manager system of government. Becki Farley is the mayor with Kyle Stump serving as Vice Mayor.

The city is celebrated as the Huckleberry Capital of the World and has been host to the annual Huckleberry Festival each July 4 weekend since 1967.

History

Jay was named for Jay Washbourne, a nephew of Stand Watie and grandson of an early-day Cherokee missionary. The town is the county seat of Delaware County, having won that distinction from Grove, Oklahoma in a special county seat election on December 8, 1908. The 1910–11 Legislature made Grove a County Court Town, and provided for two court terms each year. On June 27, 1911, the Supreme Court of Oklahoma ruled in favor of Jay, and on January 5, 1912, the County Commissioners ordered the records to be moved to Jay. On May 10, 1913, the courthouse in Jay was burned, destroying most of the county records. The post office was established May 19, 1909. Jay incorporated in 1939.

Jay is atypical in Oklahoma history because the townsite and layout were located and platted specifically for its purpose as a county seat. It is not located on a river, major road or railway line as were most Oklahoma towns of the late 1800s and early 1900s.

thumb|upright|Spavinaw Creek as it spills into Lake Eucha. Five miles south of Jay on Highway 10.

Around 1908, the Delaware County Improvement Association hired a survey team to pinpoint the exact location of the center of the county. They pinpointed allotment land belonging to Thomas Oochaleta, a full-blood Cherokee. Since acquiring title to a full-blood's allotment would require a lengthy federal legal procedure, the committee shifted their attention to the allotment adjoining Oochaleta's on the east, a parcel belonging to committee member Claude L. "Jay" Washbourne. As a mixed-blood Cherokee, Washbourne was exempt from the federal policy restricting the sale or transfer of his land. He gave ten acres on which to construct a town. The town was designed, reserving a central block for a courthouse. The committee quickly constructed a frame building and then applied to the U.S. Postal Service for a post office, submitting the required three town names for consideration. The names submitted were "Center," "Jay," and "Washbourne." Postal authorities chose Jay for its brevity.

There were 940 households in Jay, of which 33.3% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 37.1% were married-couple households, 19.1% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 36.0% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 33.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

! Race !! Percent

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| White || 42.4%

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| Black or African American || 0.1%

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| American Indian and Alaska Native || 41.3%

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| Asian || 0.4%

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| Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander || 0%

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| Some other race || 2.4%

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| Two or more races || 13.4%

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| Hispanic or Latino (of any race) || 5.7%

|}

2000 census

As of the census

Notable people

  • Linda Hughes O'Leary, Cherokee politician
  • Tommy Morrison, former world heavyweight boxing champion
  • Ty Powell, former NFL Linebacker
  • Buzz Wetzel, baseball player
  • Jessy Grizzle, robotics engineer

See also

  • National Register of Historic Places listings in Delaware County, Oklahoma

References

  • Jay Chamber Of Commerce
  • Jay Public Schools
  • Jay America Radio Network, an online radio station for Jay, America!