This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/xYB.2ACE/1619.4 Message Board Post: Originally a part of Pickens County, Chickasaw Nation, Love County was named in honor of Overton Love, a prominent judge of the Chickasaws and landowner after the Civil War. The county seat was named Marietta by its first postmaster, Jerry C. Washington, for his wife, Mary, and his sister, Etta. Love County, Oklahoma was formed at statehood in 1907; in the year 2000 the population for this 515 square miles of land was 8,831. Lake Murray lives across the county line of Love and Carter Counties and is the first and largest State Park in Oklahoma devoted entirely to recreation. On the south side of Lake Murray in the northeastern part of Love County, stands Tucker Tower, the castle-like structure towering 77 stories above the shoreline, built in the 1930s by WPA workers as a summer retreat for the governor. Today it is the center for natural history. Birth records are available from 1908, marriage records from 1907, and death records since 1908. Land records exist since 1903 while probate and court records are on file in the county courthouse since 1907.