Anyone near Big Cedar? (McAlester, Poteau: homes, travel, schools)

[Going_Somewhere]

I live in California and have wanted to move for some time now. I took a look at Idaho with my wife since I grew up there. Her answer was a definite "NO". My next look was at Utah. Logan to be precise. And it was beautiful but not being LDS was a problem. Some say it would be fine, some said I would be miserable. For me, I could have lived with it, but with 2 small children and a teenager I was not willing to take a chance.

SO now I am looking at OK. And I found that east OK seems to have the most bang for the buck, so to speak. The prices compared to what I pay in Fresno CA are unbelievable. And my wife has family in Texas so we would be closer than in California.

My question: Does anyone live in or near Big Cedar? And if so, can you tell me anything about the towns, roads and travel to and from places, stores, is there high speed internet, what are the schools like, wildlife, and people?

Thanks in advance!

Ken

[eddie gein]

Big Cedar is a beautiful spot that sits in a valley between the Winding Stair and Kiamichi mountains. There is a monument there where JFK cut a ribbon when they finished the highway through the mountains there. The mountains are about 2000 feet above the valley there. The Kiamichi river runs through there and it is a pretty clear stream. Big Cedar is pretty remote. It is about 20 or so miles to Talihina Oklahoma (to the west) and about 25 miles to Mena Arkansas to the west. It is about 20 miles to Heavener Oklahoma to the north and about 35 to Poteau. You would be needing to go to Mena or Poteau for most things as the other two towns don't have much.

There is no town at Big Cedar. Just a convienance store. There are some homes, double wides and cabins around there. About 10 miles west is Whitesboro which has a store, a post office and a school and fire station.

Big Cedar has all kinds of animals including bears. There are hundreds of miles of trails around there. Cedar lake is just over the hill and lake Wister and Broken Bow and Sardis are all within an hour of there. Also the upper mountain fork and Glover rivers provide some fishing and boating opportunities.

Also there are tons of great spots just over the line in Arkansas.

The bad thing about the area is it is a pretty good haul to a real city. Fort Smith is probably a little over an hour from there and McAlester Oklahoma is probably about the same. The roads to get around aren't a problem though.

I think eastern Oklahoma and Western Arkansas are the most beautiful parts of the central USA. The Ouachitas are the highest mountains between the Rockies and Appalachians if you exclude the Black Hills of South Dakota.

[Going_Somewhere]

Thank you for your reply. How big is Whitesboro? Will my kids hate me if I moved to a place in that area? I want quiet living but I want my kids to have friends too. How big is the school? Like 20 kids for all grades? And how about high-speed internet? Somehow I fear that in that remote of an area it might not be available. I use broadband now as I live in a town outside Fresno CA where their version of High Speed DSL is slower than dial up. The broadband is great, however.

[eddie gein]

Whitesboro is tiny. I don't know how big the school is but it is in the smallest class in Oklahoma. If I were advising somebody I would go over to Mena Arkansas or up to Poteau for school issues. Mena is probably about 6-7000 and seems like a nice place. It is really a pretty setting in the pines.

Poteau is in a beautiful valley like Mena but Poteau is north of the "pine line" by about 20 miles. Poteau is about 7 thousand, but it feels more like a town of about 12 to 15 thousand because it has a decent sized service area.

Another advantage of Poteau is that it is only a 35 minute drive to Ft Smith Arkansas which has most of your larger city amenities. Ft. Smith has about a 200K service area but it is considered a part of the NW Arkansas corridor which if you include Fayettville/Springdale and the eastern Oklahoma border towns there is about 700 K in the area. Fayetteville is the home to like four fortune 500 companies.

I bring this up because Poteau feels MUCH less remote than Mena if that matters. Mena is probably 50-60 minutes from Ft. Smith.

Big Cedar DOES seem really remote, but I bet somebody does have a wireless internet tower service you could sign up for. I'm sure Poteau and Mena both have DSL.