McAlester, Oklahoma

Common card · No. 214029

McAlester is a city in and the county seat of Pittsburg County, Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census, McAlester had a population of 18,171. The town gets its name from James Jackson "J. J." McAlester, an early settler and businessman who later became lieutenant governor of Oklahoma. McAlester married Rebecca Burney, the daughter of a full-blood Chickasaw family, which made him a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation. McAlester is the home of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, the former site of an "inside the walls" prison rodeo that ESPN's SportsCenter once broadcast. The prison's nickname, Big Mac, was derived from its location in the town. McAlester is home to many of the employees of the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant. This facility makes the majority of the bombs used by the United States military. In 1998 McAlester became the home of the Defense Ammunition Center (DAC), which moved from Savanna, Illinois, to McAlester Army Ammunition Plant.

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