[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 59 (Friday, May 10, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S4195]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         TRIBUTE TO THE CITY OF IDABEL ON ITS 100TH ANNIVERSARY

  Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, it is an honor for me to recognize the 
100th Anniversary of the City of Idabel, Oklahoma.
  Idabel is the county seat of McCurtain County, located in the 
Southeast corner of Oklahoma. The scenic rivers and wilderness that 
surround Idabel rival the beauty of any region in the United States.
  Idabel has a rich cultural history. For 75 years, from the 1830s into 
the twentieth century, Idabel was under the sovereignty of the Choctaw 
Tribe. Following their removal from Mississippi, the Choctaws occupied 
and ruled over the land that we today know as Idabel.
  In 1902, before Oklahoma even became a state, the town of Purnell was 
incorporated along a rail line. It was named after Isaac Purnell, a 
railroad official at the time. This name did not last long, however. 
Our very own United States Postal Service rejected the town's name 
because it was too similar to that of another Oklahoma town Purcell. 
For two years, this incorporated town batted possible names around, 
names like Mitchell and Hoyopa, until finally settling on the name 
``Idabel''--a combination of the first names of Isaac Purnell's 
daughters.
  While rich in its history and in the beauty of its surroundings, the 
greatest part of Idabel are the people who live there from the people 
who set up shop in that small trade village in the early twentieth 
century to the present day students, the Idabel Warriors, who are the 
future of this great town.
  The people of Idabel are devoted to God, to their country, and to 
their families. I am proud to honor their centennial, and am privileged 
to serve as their representative here in the U.S. Senate. May their 
next one hundred years be as fruitful as the first.

                          ____________________