Heavener, Oklahoma
Heavener is a city located in Le Flore County, Oklahoma. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 3,201.
Heavener is best known for the "Heavener Runestone" located on Poteau Mountain just outside the town's limits. There is much speculation as to the origin and meaning of the ancient stone's carvings, and there is such an attraction that a state park has been erected around the mysterious rock. In addition to the stone itself, the park offers Ozark hiking trails, playground equipment, and a spectacular outlook over the Poteau River Valley.
image of The Heavener Runestone
Local tradition attributes the inscription to wandering pre-Columbian Norsemen - to the extent that in 1991, Carl Albert State College in nearby Poteau changed its mascot to the Vikings in the stone's honor. The difficulty facing those who would use the Heavener Runestone to demonstrate that Viking explorers pushed down the Atlantic Coast, through the Gulf of Mexico, up the Mississippi River to the Arkansas River to the Poteau River to the ankle-depth watercourse at the site, is that only six of the eight characters are genuine Elder Futhark runes. A transliteration would read "G [not a rune] O M E D A [backwards L]". The first proposed explanation (Monge 1967) is that the letters represent an elaborate cryptogram, using three runic alphabets, that decodes to "November 11, 1012". In recent years, this theory has lost ground among local defenders in favor of the engineer Dr. Richard Nielson's 1986 proposal that the unknown Viking explorer hastily inverted the last letter and substituted a letter from the then-extinct Gothic alphabet in the second position. According to this interpretation, the inscription reads "GLOME DAL" - The Valley of Glome. A recent interpretation by Rev. Lee Woodward that the inscription is an elaborate cryptogram marking the final resting place of René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle has yet to gain substantive support.
The inscription has been rejected by Scandinavian philologists and runologists, who consider it to be modern (19th or 20th century). Runes in the Elder Futhark went out of use by around 800. The reading should probably be GNOMEDAL (with backward L), perhaps a Norwegian personal name "G. Numedal", or a made-up place-name "Gnome Dale".
The Kansas City Southern Railway operates a large repair depot in Heavener that has been the town's largest employer for over seventy years.
Geography
Heavener is located at 34°53'21" North, 94°36'15" West (34.889108, -94.604217)Template:GR.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 12.8 km² (4.9 mi²). 12.7 km² (4.9 mi²) of it is land and 0.1 km² (0.04 mi²) of it is water, most of which is found in Moonwells. The total area is 0.40% water.
Demographics
As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there are 3,201 people, 1,113 households, and 783 families residing in the city. The population density is 251.2/km² (650.4/mi²). There are 1,255 housing units at an average density of 98.5/km² (255.0/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 73.79% White, 0.62% African American, 9.84% Native American, 0.16% Asian, 0.00% Pacific Islander, 10.56% from other races, and 5.03% from two or more races. 22.52% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There are 1,113 households out of which 34.0% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.7% are married couples living together, 12.3% have a female householder with no husband present , and 29.6% are non-families. 25.2% of all households are made up of individuals and 14.3% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.81 and the average family size is 3.27.
In the city the population is spread out with 26.3% under the age of 18 , 14.9% from 18 to 24, 26.2% from 25 to 44, 17.2% from 45 to 64, and 15.4% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 31 years. For every 100 females there are 100.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 97.0 males.
The median income for a household in the city is $23,750, and the median income for a family is $28,654. Males have a median income of $19,848 versus $18,487 for females. The per capita income for the city is $11,313. 26.3% of the population and 23.6% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 32.7% of those under the age of 18 and 12.5% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.