National Sand Bass Festival
It’s a free, week-long festival featuring food vendors, a carnival, and numerous craft booths. Always held the first full week of June, the National Sand Bass Festival ends with free concerts on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights.
The National Sand Bass Festival attracts more than 15,000 people from across the United States to the Lake Texoma area. Held in Madill’s town square, the festival features plenty of live entertainment, the Sand Bass Run and a three-on-three basketball tournament. Visitors to the Sand Bass Festival enjoy turtle races, a car show, a talent show, as well as games and competitions for children.
Museum of Southern Oklahoma
Home to an astounding collection of American Indian artifacts dating to 1900 at the Museum of Southern Oklahoma, the Madill Museum is particularly known for its extensive collection of Chickasaw artifacts. The museum has tax rolls from Marshall County dating back to the first days of statehood, fascinating office machines used in the courthouse’s early years, as well as antique furniture and photographs from various county schools. There is also an exhibit of the development of telephone and communication technology. The museum has one of the oldest operating General Electric refrigerators in the country.
Ruby Adkins Gallery / Madill Art Show
The Madill Art Show is held each October, featuring more than 300 original oils, watercolors, mixed media, pottery, sculpture, and junior division entries. All artwork is available to purchase and is judged in categories including still life, portraits, and wildlife. The Madill Art Show features local food vendors, and admission is free. The Madill Art Club meets monthly at the Ruby Adkins Gallery, with artists sharing techniques and inspiration.
Madill FFA Rodeo
The Annual Madill FFA Rodeo at the Madill Round-Up Club Arena is a great time for the whole family. Get your tickets for a fun time for the whole family. The Madill Roundup Club Arena is located near the Marshall County Expo Center on U.S. Highway 70 between Madill and Kingston.
Reuel Little Classic Marathon
This classic event each October includes a 5k run, a 10 run, and a half-marathon.
Huauni Creek Hunting Club Noodling Tournament
This organization is a nonprofit hunting and fishing club founded in 1982 that hosts family-friendly hunting and fishing events and puts its proceeds back into the community.
Madill Gaming Center
Madill Gaming Center offers 99 electronic games – which means 99 chances to win! Located in the heart of Chickasaw Country, Madill Gaming Center is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Enjoy a complimentary beverage in between e-games and refuel with snacks and more at the Chickasaw Travel Stop next door. Next time you’re cruising down Highway 70, swing by Madill Gaming Center for the ultimate experience.
Texoma Casino
The Texoma Casino has more than 370 electronic games for visitors to enjoy in an 8,800-square-foot facility 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Operated by the Chickasaw Nation, Texoma Casino has a bar area and convenience near Lake Texoma.
Lake Texoma State Park
Everything is big about Lake Texoma. The lake sprawls into two states. It is the place to catch record-setting catfish, striped and small-mouth bass, enjoy water sports and hiking, or play play golf on a sprawling course. Lake Texoma is Oklahoma’s second largest lake, offering great swimming, camping, picnic areas, horseback riding, trail rides, tennis, hiking, nature programs, indoor fitness, and recreation programs. Golfers can choose between two 18-hole courses complete with driving ranges, putting greens, club rentals and pro shop. Swimmers can choose from beach swimming or an outdoor pool. Other facilities include RV and tent sites, comfort stations with showers, a public laundry, boat ramps, playgrounds, tennis courts, hiking trails, riding stables, a full-service marina, and striper-guide fishing services. Lake Texoma Resort offers dining in the Waterfront Restaurant or the poolside lounge. Group services include river boat rides, hayrides, massage therapy, dinner theatre and other activities.
Chickasaw Pointe Golf Club
Located in Kingston, Oklahoma, Chickasaw Pointe Golf Club has a 7,085-yard championship layout including rolling hills, lake views, Bermuda grass fairways and Champion Ultra Dwarf greens. Designed by Randy Heckenkemper in 1999, this 18-hole course is rated the #2 public golf course in Oklahoma, and #16 in the entire country. The par-72 course has four sets of tees, the Pro Shop features the latest golf fashions and supplies, and the trained staff can fit you with a custom set of clubs. The course is perfect for small groups, corporate outings, or professional tournaments, and the food is acclaimed at the Chickasaw Pointe Golf Club’s Hilltop Grill.
Buncombe Creek Golf Course
Buncombe Creek Golf Course is located on the scenic rolling hills of Lake Texoma, one mile north of the Willis Bridge in Kingston, Oklahoma. The affordable 18-hole Buncombe Creek course features a putting area, driving range, a regulation course, practice green and carts. There is a Senior Men’s Scramble every Wednesday.
Fobb Bottom / Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation
Fobb Bottom Wildlife Management Area is 2,205 acres in size and consists mainly of flood plain, river bottom, and cropland in southern Marshall County, with camping in designated areas. The nearest town is Willis, Oklahoma. The area is known for game species like quail, deer, turkey, rabbit, coyote, bobcat, dove and waterfowl, as well as for protected bald eagles. The area is particularly known for black bass and flathead, blue and channel catfish.
Fort Washita Historic Site
The Fort Washita Historic Site & Museum in Durant has a variety of historical exhibits and living history events. Built in 1842 to protect the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes from marauding Plains tribes, Fort Washita was occupied by Confederate forces during the Civil War. In 1962, the fort was acquired by the Oklahoma Historical Society, who restored some of the fort’s original structures, including officer’s quarters that can be viewed today. Fort Washita is now managed by the Chickasaw Nation.
Choctaw Casino & Resort
At Choctaw Casino and Resort you’ll find nearly 7,500 slot machines, more than 100 table games, and a state-of-the-art poker room. There is excellent dining at 16 restaurants and big names in entertainment at the Grand Theater and at Gilley’s. “The District” features bowling, an arcade, and six movie theatres. The complex has a spa and two pools furnished with private cabanas. There are 1,700 hotel rooms in the AAA Four Diamond hotel and a three-level convention and more than 100,000 square feet of flexible event space.
The Grand Theater at Choctaw Casino & Resort
This 3,000 capacity, multi-level venue draws some of the finest artists in music, with legends like Aretha Franklin, Loretta Lynn, the Jacksons and CHIC taking to the stage, as well as top-billing sensations like Luke Bryan, and A-List comedians like Kevin Hart. Choctaw Grand Theater offers something for everyone, with a diverse and exciting line-up of phenomenal shows stretching throughout the year. With state-of-the-art facilities and phenomenal lighting, sight lines and acoustics, there really is no better place in the area to see the crème de la crème of the entertainment world.
Durant Main Street
Located in the heart of historic downtown, Durant Main Street is a great place to shop, eat, and live. This nine-block district includes unique boutiques and retail shops, art galleries, salons and spas, delicious restaurants, entertaining bars, a fascinating museum, loft apartments, and bustling business offices. Seasonal attractions downtown include the Magnolia Farmer’s Market during spring, summer, and fall, the Downtown Beach, First Friday, Trick-or-Treat on Main Street, downtown in December holiday festivities, Shop Small Saturday, and many others.
Oklahoma Shakespearean Festival
This Summer Theatre program provides unique entertainment, innovation education, and economic benefit through presentation of Shakespearean plays and other performing arts for ages 6 and up. OSF takes place on the campus of Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant, Oklahoma.
Magnolia Festival
Honoring the heritage of Durant, the “City of Magnolias,” the annual Magnolia Festival of Oklahoma began in 1997 and features a variety of activities for a fun-filled family weekend. Taking place each year the weekend after Memorial Day, attendees can enjoy a carnival with rides, games and delicious fair food, along with a stunning firework display on opening night. The wide variety of events includes an art show, live entertainment, children’s activities, tractor show, food vendors and hundreds of shopping booths, as well as a 5k run, a fun run, and the Durant Rotary Magnolia Bike Tour.
Durant Riding Club
The Durant Riding Club offers a series of play days throughout the year for families to bring their horses, ride and learn. The club promotes western culture among young people introduces them to horsemanship and activities dealing involving horses.
Dixon Durant Park
Formerly Northside Park, or Rocket Park, it was renamed to honor the founder of Durant. This 6-acre park is located on North 10th Avenue between Walnut and Willow Streets and inclues benches, grills, ADA accessible restrooms, six lighted tennis courts, a basketball court, a quarter-mile walking/jogging track, picnic and pavilion area and playground equipment including swings, jungle gyms, slides, and climbers.
Craig Parker Memorial Disc Golf Course
A cart-friendly, championship-style disc course with lots of walking, it was developed and dedicated to a true ambassador of disc golf and Durant Disc Golf Club.
Three Valley Museum
Located in the heart of the Red, Blue and Washita river valleys, Three Valley Museum focuses on the unique history of southeast Oklahoma. Learn the story of Durant and Bryan County through fascinating artifacts and displays, including a small-town exhibit depicting more than 20 businesses and scenes from the early 1900s, transportation exhibits, and a Native American Gallery, highlighting the Native tribes from the southeast Oklahoma.
Fort McCulloch
The Fort McCulloch site was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. Fort McCulloch was the main Confederate fortification in southern Indian Territory during the Civil War, built by troops under the command of Brig. Gen. Albert Pike. Fort McCulloch is positioned on a bluff on the south bank of the Blue River about three miles southwest of Kenefic in present Bryan County, Oklahoma. Named for Gen. Benjamin McCulloch who died at Pea Ridge, the post was strategically located along routes leading to Forts Gibson and Washita in Indian Territory, Fort Smith, Arkansas, and supply towns in north Texas. Consisting of earthworks and no permanent buildings, after the war the facility was as a haven for refugees.
Butterfield Stage’s Fisher Station
One of 12 stage stops on the old Butterfield Overland Mail route, Fisher’s Station was also known as Carriage Point. Located on what was the Texas Road in Indian Territory, Fisher’s Station is at the head of Island Bayou in what is now Bryan County, Oklahoma, at the time the dividing line between the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations.