Historical Marker Program

Goodland Mission

Choctaw County
Location: on OK 271A approximately two miles southwest of Hugo
Coordinates: 33.982754, -95.555325
Material: Granite
Sponsor(s): Oklahoma Historical Society and the Oklahoma Department of Transportation
Topics: Education; Industrial Period, 1941–1982; Modern Period, 1982–present; Religion/Philosophy; Social/Cultural; Westward Expansion, 1803–1861

Established in 1848 by the Presbyterian Church as a mission among the Choctaw and Chickasaw, the mission was organized through the efforts of Rev. Cyrus Kingsbury, Ebenezer Hotchkin, Alfred Wright, Cyrus Byington, and C. C. Copeland. The first church and school were built in 1850. During the Civil War, Choctaw troops drilled on the campus for service in the Confederacy. The school returned to its primary mission of educating Native American youth after the war. Later, the mission school was called the Goodland Indian Orphanage, operated by the Southern Presbyterian Church. As the Goodland Presbyterian Children's Home since 1960, it is one of the oldest schools in continuous operation in Oklahoma. The current granite marker replaced an aluminum marker that can still be found on the Goodland Academy campus.