Okay 's history as a community began about 1806 , when a French trader named Joseph Bogy established a trading post in the Three Forks area of what would eventually become the state of Oklahoma . The firm of Brand and Barbour took over the post later . When Barbour died in 1822 , A. P. Chouteau , who had already established a trading post at Salina bought the Three Forks post . At the time , the post included twelve houses and a ferry . Chouteau expanded his business by bringing in Creole carpenters to construct keelboats that local traders needed to transport the goods they obtained from the local Indians to New Orleans and St. Louis . For a while , the Osage tribe claimed ownership of the land , which they ceded to the Western Cherokees before the Trail of Tears . Then the Western Creeks were allowed to settle on part of the land . In 1828 , the Federal Government bought Chouteau 's land for construction of a Creek Agency
Trail of Tears
Trail of Tears
Okay, Oklahoma