Oklahoma's oldest national park unit, Chicka- saw National Recreation Area has been a ref- uge for outdoor traditions for over a century. Springs, streams, and lakes attract visitors to the park, named for the Indian nation from whom the United States purchased the land for the park in 1902.

Oklahoma’s oldest unit of the National Park Service is the Chickasaw National Recreation Area, located in Sulphur. Its history as a protected federal area dates back to 1902, when it was established as the Sulphur Springs Reservation. The land was originally sold to the U.S. government by the Chickasaw Nation to protect the unique mineral and freshwater springs from private over-development. In 1906, it was redesignated as Platt National Park, making it the seventh national park in the United States and, at the time, the smallest. It held the "National Park" title for 70 years until 1976, when it was combined with the Arbuckle Recreation Area to form the Chickasaw National Recreation Area we know today. While it no longer carries the specific "National Park" designation in its name, it remains the oldest federal park site in the state and continues to be managed by the National Park Service, offering visitors access to historic Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) architecture, bison pastures, and the healing waters that first made it famous over a century ago.