Pauls Valley

The area that eventually became the city of Pauls Valley was one of the earliest European settlements in what was then known as Indian Territory. Smith Paul, born in 1809 in New Bern, North Carolina, discovered the fertile bottom land which is now Pauls Valley while a member of a wagon train traveling to California. Paul described the land as "a section where the bottom land was rich and blue stem grass grew so high that a man on horseback was almost hidden in its foliage".
The Tri-Party Treaty of January 1, 1837 ceded this part of what is now the State of Oklahoma to the Chickasaw Nation. When the Chickasaw Indians were relocated to Indian Territory that year, Smith Paul moved with them and married Ela-Teecha, a Chickasaw Indian woman. In 1847, the Pauls settled on the rich Garvin County bottom land which became known to locals as "Smith Paul’s Valley". By 1871, postal service was established in the area, although the Post Office was accidentally called "Paul's Valley, Arkansas" as the Indian Territory was being administered out of Arkansas. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway shortened the name to "Paul’s Valley" when the railroad came to town in 1887.
The railroad brought growth and prosperity to Smith Pauls Valley. The first newspaper was published in 1887. The Pauls Valley townsite was laid out in 1892. A U.S. Court house was built in 1895. The first white school in Indian Territory was established and brick buildings were built downtown. In 1909, the streets were bricked. 

Today, Pauls Valley has more brick streets [17,986 square yards (15,039 m²)] than any other town in the United States.
The Oklahoma Cartoonists Hall of Fame located in the Toy and Action Figure Museum was opened in Pauls Valley in 2005.