Durant is a city in Bryan County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 13,549 at the 2000 census, but in the 2007 estimate, it had risen to 16,161. Durant is the principal city of the Durant Micropolitan Statistical Area, which had a population of 39,563 in 2007. It was founded by Dixon Durant, a Choctaw who lived in the area, after the MK&T railroad came through the Indian Territory in the early 1870s. It became the county seat of Bryan County in 1907 after Oklahoma statehood. Durant is home to Southeastern Oklahoma State University and the headquarters of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Durant ranks as the second largest city within the Choctaw Nation, following McAlester, and ahead of Poteau. The city has officially been recognized as the Magnolia Capital of Oklahoma, and the SOSU campus is known as "The Campus of a Thousand Magnolias".