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It’s hard to imagine the serene fields and forests of today's Oklahoma as places of frantic, even desperate, activity: Native American tribes forced to relocate; land-crazed settlers rushing to claim a piece of ground; Dust Bowl farmers escaping a state that was blowing away. Perhaps all that agitation made Oklahomans long for some quiet and relaxation, because that's what we find there today. Even the large cities of Tulsa and Oklahoma City seem uncrowded and unhurried, and Oklahomans everywhere in the state seem more than happy to engage visitors in some leisurely conversation.

The state has plenty of attractions for tranquil sightseeing, many of them related to the state's past, turbulent and otherwise. There are museums about cowboys, about cowboy philosophers (Will Rogers) and about the white settlers who moved into the area in the late 1800s and early 1900s. There are majestic tallgrass prairies that show the way the region looked before the cowboys and pioneers got there. Where Oklahoma really stands out, though, is in its wealth of Native American museums, historic sites and cultural gatherings. Once known as the Indian Territory, it still has the largest Native American population of any U.S. state, numbering more than 500,000.

Geography

Oklahoma's countryside varies from rolling hills, plains, lakes and rich farmland on the eastern end to the pine forests that cover a large part of western Oklahoma to the 4,973-ft/1,516-m Black Mesa in Cimarron County—the highest point in the state—in the Oklahoma panhandle, which marks the boundary between the prairie and the New Mexico desert.

Oklahoma Rivers are generally shallow and even run dry during the summer, but can flood their banks during heavy rainstorms. Much of the water that previously flowed across the state was impounded in a series of artificial lakes after the dustbowl days of the 1930s, when drought and unwise farming practices created an ecological catastrophe. Oklahoma now has as much shoreline as many coastal states.

The mountain ranges of Oklahoma more closely resemble the gently rolling hills of the eastern U.S. than the jagged peaks of the Rocky Mountains, but they are actually the worn-down roots of what were once the highest mountains on the continent.

History

Plains groups such as the Wichita, Kiowa, Apache and Comanche lived in Oklahoma long before the Europeans arrived. But a significant portion of Oklahoma's Native American population are descendants of the so-called Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole), which were forcibly moved there by the U.S. government between 1817 and 1840. The relocation of Cherokee from Georgia in the winter of 1838-39 became known as the Trail of Tears because some 4,000 of the 16,000 who began the long march died before they reached the end. For a time, Oklahoma was known as the Indian Territory, but the various groups who lived there were far from unified, especially during the Civil War. Some Five Tribes members who were slaveholders favored the Confederacy, while members of other nations urged neutrality, and this division led to violent conflict.

The discord left the nations defenseless against further U.S. encroachment, which came in the form of the railroads and government allocation of reservations. Then, in 1889, the U.S. government held a land rush, specifying a time when white settlers could enter a designated territory, claim a piece of land and set up a homestead. Because many of the 50,000 who participated in this land rush jumped the starting gun, they were called "Sooners." Other land rushes were held in 1891, 1892, 1893, 1895 and 1901. Oklahoma entered the union in 1907.

Oklahoma suffered badly during the Great Depression, when the western part of the state became the center of the Dust Bowl—thousands of acres of topsoil blew away as a result of drought and poor farming practices. Many of the "Okie" Dust Bowl farmers fled west—an exodus John Steinbeck documented in his novel The Grapes of Wrath. The discovery of oil in the late 1800s and early 1900s also had, and continues to have, a dramatic impact on the state.

The bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in 1995 marked one of Okalahoma's most memorable events. Though in the past whole towns have been destroyed by tornados, this event indicated the worst damage and highest casualty rate in the state caused by human malice. Yet in the middle of the shock and horror, citizens of Oklahoma rallied to form rescue and recovery teams within minutes of the bombing. Hotels donated room space to accommodate the volunteers from around the state and out of state. Restaurants delivered free meals to volunteers, and enough blood was donated to create a large surplus. This will always be a time remembered in Oklahoma with both grief and pride.

Snapshot

Among Oklahoma's main attractions are Native American culture, history, the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, the Gilcrease Museum, Bricktown in Oklahoma City, Thoroughbred and quarterhorse racing and outdoor activities (fishing, hunting, boating, swimming, camping and golf).

Travelers who are looking for a vacation focused on Native American heritage, Old West history, acres of cattle and horse ranches and a variety of outdoor activities will enjoy their visit to Oklahoma. Travelers looking for lots of dramatic scenery or big-city attractions may find the state less to their liking.

Potpourri

Some Sooners jokingly refer to the ubiquitous oil well as the Oklahoma state tree.

For years Oklahoma had the only state Capitol building without a dome, until one was finally completed in 2002, with a statue of an Indian warrior, The Guardian—sculpted by Enoch Kelley Haney, state senator and member of the Seminole Nation—on the top. It is still the only state Capitol with an oil well in front of the building.

At the time of his death in a plane crash in 1935, humorist Will Rogers was perhaps the most popular man in the U.S. His newspaper column was syndicated in more than 500 publications, and it's estimated that several million people tuned in to his weekly radio program.

While Rogers is Oklahoma's best-known folk humorist, the state's most famous folk singer is Woody Guthrie, who was born in Okemah. Guthrie went west with other Oklahoma Dust Bowl refugees in the 1930s and immortalized their struggles in his songs. In addition to penning many folk standards, he was an important influence on later songwriters such as Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.

Oklahoma has also bred many country-music stars, including Merle Haggard, Reba McEntire, Vince Gill, Toby Keith and Garth Brooks. Other famous Sooners: Olympic champion Jim Thorpe, author Ralph Ellison, astronaut Thomas Stafford, jazz musicians Charlie Christian and Chet Baker and bank robber Pretty Boy Floyd.

Some of the dust storms that enveloped Oklahoma in the 1930s were calculated to be up to 2 mi/3 km high, 100 mi/160 km wide and moving at speeds greater than 50 mph/80 kph.

The Creek and Cherokee Nations have opened bingo gambling halls in several locations throughout the state, including Muskogee, Okmulgee and Tulsa.

A Tulsa businessman, Cyrus Avery, was instrumental in the design of U.S. 66, the famous Main Street of America that ran from Chicago through Oklahoma and to California. He headed up a grassroots effort that led to the National Highway System Plan in 1925 and, ultimately, to the paving of Route 66.

Oklahoman Carl Magee invented the parking meter in 1933, and Oklahoma City was the first to install them in 1935.

Oklahoma means "red people" in the Choctaw language.

At Har-Ber Village (near Grove), about 100 old buildings have been relocated and restored to create an authentic frontier town.

Cheyenne was the site of the Battle of Washita, a massacre of 200 Cheyenne men, women and children led by Gen. George Armstrong Custer. There's a museum nearby with relics of the battle.

Heavener Runestone State Park (Heavener) preserves a stone monolith covered with carvings reputedly put there by Vikings hundreds of years before Columbus landed in America. Talk about Sooners.