🛢️Oklahoma

The Sooner State

Oklahoma was the last large area of the continental United States to be opened to white settlement — and then it was opened in a single morning. The 1889 Land Run launched at noon on April 22, and by evening two million acres of former Indian Territory had been claimed. Some participants snuck across the border before the gun sounded; they were called "Sooners," and the name stuck to the state.

Indian Territory

Most of what is now Oklahoma was designated Indian Territory in the 1830s, where the U.S. government forcibly relocated the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole nations from the American Southeast — the Trail of Tears. Other nations including the Comanche, Osage, and Kiowa were also pushed into the territory. Thirty-nine federally recognized tribes still have significant presence in Oklahoma; Cherokee, Muscogee, and Choctaw nations each have reservations and their own governments.

Land Runs and Boomers

After decades of pressure from land-hungry settlers known as "Boomers," Congress opened former Indian Territory land to white settlement. The first Land Run of April 22, 1889 opened two million acres at noon. Tens of thousands of settlers lined up at the border and rushed in on horseback and in wagons when the signal sounded. Those who snuck across early were called Sooners. Oklahoma Territory was organized in 1890, and the territory plus remaining Indian Territory became the 46th state in 1907.

Oil

Oklahoma's first major oil strike came at Bartlesville in 1897. The 1905 discovery at the Glenn Pool south of Tulsa produced one of the world's most productive fields and made Tulsa the self-proclaimed "Oil Capital of the World" for much of the 20th century. Phillips Petroleum, Conoco, Cities Service, and Sinclair all had Oklahoma origins. The Oklahoma State Capitol is the only capitol in the United States with active oil wells on its grounds.

Dust Bowl and Music

In the 1930s, drought and poor farming practices turned the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles into the Dust Bowl. Hundreds of thousands of "Okies" left for California — John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and Woody Guthrie's songs documented the migration. Guthrie was born in Okemah. The state has since produced an outsized number of country and western musicians, from Bob Wills to Merle Haggard (via California) to Vince Gill, Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, Toby Keith, and Carrie Underwood.

Oklahoma Facts

• Oklahoma sits squarely in "Tornado Alley" and averages the most tornadoes per square mile of any state.
• The 1995 Oklahoma City bombing at the Murrah Federal Building killed 168 people.
• Will Rogers, the humorist, was born in what was then Indian Territory in 1879.
• The state has more man-made lakes than any other state.
• The parking meter was invented in Oklahoma City in 1935.

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