A small Oklahoma town has seen a boom in tourism after strips of dirt roads and log cabins were transformed into a luxury Airbnb hotspot.
Hochatown – located three hours outside of Dallas, Texas – has just 242 permanent residents but attracts an influx of 30,000 visitors when weekends come along.
The boom was in part sparked by the pandemic when large swathes of Americans relocated to more rural areas to isolate away from big crowds. The area is popular for its swimming, fishing and large casino.
The number of cabins to rent in Hochatown has swollen from 400 to 2,400 since the onset of the pandemic – a more than 400 percent increase, AirDNA reported.
However, residents rage the unexpected growth has put pressure on the area which still doesn’t have its own police force or fire department.
Hochatown – located three hours outside of Dallas, Texas – has only 242 permanent residents, but when weekends come along, the town can see an influx of 30,000 visitors descending on the area to fish, swim, and take chances at the casino (pictured)
Prior to the pandemic, Hochatown had around 400 cabins to rent, but there are now around 2,400 – a more than 400 percent increase. The biggest draws to the small town are mainly fly-fishing, boating, and swimming
Mayor Dian Jordan, 61, told WFAA: ‘I miss the old Hochatown on Saturday when I can’t just go to the lake and show up at the marina and hang out with my friend. I’m like: There’s no parking spaces!’ Jordan said
She likened the town’s new-found popularity to the rapper Jelly Roll, who became a country music sensation in his late 30s after years of addiction and jail time.
‘Jelly Roll said it right, it takes 20 years to be the overnight sensation,’ Jordan said. ‘That’s Hochatown! We’ve been here.’
Jordan also credited Airbnb with the town’s growth.
‘Airbnb built this town 100 percent,’ she told The New York Times in November 2023.
‘It was just a secret spot for the locals, but now you see the cabins, the businesses that have just taken off,’ she told WFAA. ‘The nicer the cabins, the more people came.
Another big contender is the Choctaw Landing casino, which was built by the Choctaw Nation – the third-largest Native American tribe in the country – for around $240million.
‘The tourism just keeps doubling and every time it doubles it’s always a bigger number.’
The biggest draws to the small town are mainly fly-fishing, boating, and swimming, according to the local outlet.
Another big contender is the Choctaw Landing casino, which was built by the Choctaw Nation – the third-largest Native American tribe in the country.
The $240 million complex boasts 100 rooms, a pool, multiple restaurants, and a convenience store, and has been booked out every weekend since Memorial Day, Jordan said.
The casino also brought in a 24-pump gas station and contributed $7million to have a turn lane and a red light that led into the building. It also built an electrical substation to power the resort and help stabilize electric to those within a six-mile radius, according to WFAA.
The casino (pictured) boasts 100 rooms, a pool, multiple restaurants, and a convenience store, and has been booked out every weekend since Memorial Day
It employs almost 400 people – double the size of the town’s permanent residents – which forced the Indian tribe to build an apartment building to house their employees.
Despite the influx in visitors, Hochatown still doesn’t have a police or fire department, a rural water system, or municipal wastewater infrastructure. Its roads also desperately need repaving – a feat a lot of cabin owners have paid for themselves.
‘If you have a problem, there’s no one to call because there was nobody in charge and so we knew we had to incorporate to handle the growth,’ the mayor said.
Hochatown has listed 12 priorities it needs to focus on, with road improvements being the first thing to tackle.
It brought in a total of $456,000 in sales tax in September alone, according to The New York Times. They hope to get to around $1million a month.
‘For a town of a few hundred people, this number is astronomical,’ David Francis, of the Oklahoma Tax Commission, told The Times in November. ‘The town is basically one giant Airbnb.’
Although Jordan is enjoying the slowdown from the pandemic, some property owners are already ditching their cabins.
‘We scrimped and saved to buy a plot of land and get a construction loan,’ Leo Winegar told The Times last year. ‘At the time, the numbers were so amazing, it seemed like there was no way I could lose.’
However, by the time his home was ready, the demand for cabins in Hochatown had significantly decreased.
‘I hope I don’t have to sell the cabin,’ he said.
A town with a long – and short – history
Hochatown has existed for centuries, but it’s also only been on the map for two years,
The Choctaw tribe first settled in the area in the 1830s after the Trial of Tears forced them to move, according to WFAA. Eventually, the area became part of the Broken Bow Lake, which caused the tribe to move again.
White settlers came around the 20th Century and began manufacturing moonshine during the Prohibition era, according to The Times.
They called the area Hochatown, but never incorporated it.
By 1960, its population dwindled to under 100 and the Army Corps of Engineers built a dam, forcing the remaining residents to be relocated to higher ground.
As years went on, the town lost its post office and zip code and disappeared from the map, The Times reported.
It was officially incorporated in November 2022, bringing the modern-day version.
