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Locust Grove was the site of the Battle of Locust Grove, a small Civil War engagement on July 3, 1862, in which approximately 250 Union troops surprised and destroyed a similar-sized Confederate contingent, killing about 100 and capturing another 100 while sustaining only minimal losses. The escaping Confederates retreated toward Tahlequah, leading to a loss of morale and desertions among the Cherokee Confederate supporters.A small community, named for the grove of locust trees where this battle took place, formed here, in the Cherokee Nation of Indian Territory.

A post office was established here on March 26, 1873. Jim Bryan moved the post office to his store in 1908, after Oklahoma became a state and Mayes County was established. In 1910, Louie Ross bought the Bryan store and moved it to his father's ranch house. The community of Locust Grove soon relocated closer to the store, and soon had a cemetery, a gristmill, two blacksmith shops, and a separate building to house the post office.The existing townsite was established in 1912 by O.W.

Killam, a lawyer, merchant, realtor and promoter who bought the Cherokee allotment that had belonged to Elzina Ross in connection with the construction of the Kansas, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway. Killam platted the townsite and incorporated it on March 4, 1913.The town has had its share of tragedy. In June 1952, the county attorney Jack Burris was assassinated at his home at Locust Grove in one of the most famous unsolved murders in Oklahoma history.

In 1977 it was the location of the Oklahoma Girl Scout murders, in which three young girls were raped and murdered as they were camping at the nearby Camp Scott Girl Scout facility. Gene Leroy Hart was arrested and tried for the crime, but found not guilty in a jury trial. The case remains open. Also, a popular restaurant, "Country Cottage", was linked to a highly publicized August 2008 outbreak of E.

coli O111, a rare strain of the bacterium. The outbreak resulted in more than 100 cases of gastrointestinal food poisoning and one death; subsequent studies were unclear about the source of the bacteria, leading Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson to accuse the state health department of having "botched" the investigation.Native American Cherokee sculptor Willard Stone lived near Locust Grove; a museum dedicated to his work is now located on the site.Locust Grove is home to the Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry.

There is only one other poetry museum in the U.S., the American Poetry Museum in Washington DC.