On October 29, 1961, President John F. Kennedy visited Big Cedar, east of Talihina, Oklahoma to give a speech marking the opening of the Ouachita National Forest Road.
Local transportation was revolutionized during the 1950s by the construction of U.S. Highway 271, which provided paved all-weather highway connections to Clayton and the county seat at Antlers, Oklahoma to the east and south, and Talihina, Wilburton and Poteau to the northeast.