A United States Post Office was established at Rodney, Indian Territory on June 30, 1890, and closed on July 5, 1899. The community was named for Rodney Moyer, early-day resident. It was located at the site of Rodney Crossing, a low-water ford on the Kiamichi River.[1]
An important local landmark is Rodney Mountain (767 ft.), also named for Rodney Moyer.[3]
The community was a "saw mill town", centered on the activities, commerce and bustle generated by its sawmill. As timber was cleared from nearby mountainsides, the sawmill relocated to other areas deeper within the mountains. Rodney, which had never developed a population base or economic mainstay other than the mill, went out of existence.
Rodney's namesake, Rodney Moyer, left the area to participate in Alaska's Klondike gold rush at about the time of the community's disestablishment, according to information made available to the Pushmataha County Historical Society. His time and place of death are not known.[4]
^George H. Shirk, Oklahoma Place Names, p. 181; Post Office Site Location Reports, Record Group 28, National Archives; Map of Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory, coal and asphalt segregation and pine timber of commercial value, GPO, 1904.
^Morris, John W. Historical Atlas of Oklahoma (Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1986), plate 38.