Oklahoma
State in S central USA; nicknamed Sooner State
Area:
181,100 sq km/69,905 sq mi
Capital:
Oklahoma City
Towns and Cities:
Tulsa, Lawton, Norman, Enid
Physical:
Arkansas, Red, and Canadian rivers; Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge;
Ouachita national forest; Tallgrass Prairie Reserve; Grand Lake o'the
Cherokees; Salt Plains national wildlife refuge, with whooping cranes
and bald eagles
Features:
A large Native American population, mainly in the east, as a result
of the 19th-century displacement of Native Americans to the Indian Territory;
Fort Sill Military Reservation (1869), where Geronimo died 1909; Tahlequah,
headquarters of the Cherokee Nation, site of signing of the Cherokee
constitution 1839, with the Cherokee National Museum; Anadarko, with
the Southern Plains Indian Museum and Craft Centre, the National Hall
of Fame for Native Americans, and Indian City USA; Spiro Mounds Archaeological
state park, with the remains of earth mounds lived in by the Spiro 900-1400;
Guthrie; Dog Iron Ranch and Will Rogers Birthplace; Will Rogers Memorial;
Oklahoma City, including the Oklahoma state capitol (with oil wells
in its grounds), Harn Homestead and 1889er Museum, and the National
Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center; Tulsa, with art deco
architecture from the 1920s, and the Gilcrease Museum (with a collection
of Native American art); Bartlesville, with the Frank Phillips home
(1909) and the Price Tower (1956, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright); Woolacre
Museum, a wildlife reserve with a museum of the West
Industries:
Cereals, peanuts, cotton, livestock, oil, natural gas, helium, machinery
and other metal products
Population:
(1995) 3,277,700
Famous People:
John Berryman, Ralph Ellison, Woody Guthrie, Mickey Mantle, Will Rogers,
Jim Thorpe
History:
Explored for Spain by Francisco de Coronado 1541; most acquired by
the USA from France with the Louisiana Purchase 1803. The W Panhandle
became US territory when Texas was annexed 1845. It was divided
into Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory 1890, part of which
was thrown open to settlers with lotteries and other hurried distribution
of land. Together with what remained of Indian Territory, it became
a state 1907. Oil was struck 1897, and the state led all others
in oil production until 1928. The 1930s brought drought, dust
storms, and an exodus of many, especially to California. Economic
growth resumed thereafter, particularly in the 1970s, when world
oil prices rose.
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