Oklahoma Information

Oklahoma Information

Northern America

The endless horizon, the constant wind over the Great Plains, the wide grassy plains between the Mississippi Valley and the Rocky Mountains: In the heart of the USA, Oklahoma, shaped like a hand with an outstretched index finger, separates Kansas in the north from Texas in the south. Like Kansas, this state has fewer spectacular nature parks or glittering metropolises to offer, but instead an all the broader range of out-of-the-ordinary sights and experiences. Like Kansas, Oklahoma’s people are unique: reserved and warm, hospitable and humorous. Indians and cowboys are not a tourist attraction here, but everyday life.

According to allcitycodes, “Okla homma”, “Red people”, is what the Choctaw Indians used to describe the native population and thus gave the name to Oklahoma, which was admitted to the Union in 1907 as the 46th state. After US President Thomas Jefferson bought a huge piece of land between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains from the French Emperor Napoleon in 1803, it was originally intended to serve as an “Indian Territory”, a retreat for the Indians, some of whom had been resettled here or had always lived here. But the settlement pressure grew, “whites” flocked to the country and appropriated it more and more. Irrespective of this, 39 Indian peoples are still at home in “Native America”, as Oklahoma is also called, and maintain their culture, customs and customs in many ways. Nowhere else in the USA do so many Indians live as here.

Bordering six US states, Oklahoma has long been a cultural, geographic and historical hub.

Location and size
The state of Oklahoma is located in the Heartland, the center of the USA, and is the northern neighbor of Texas. Oklahoma covers an area of ​​about 182,000 km², is more than twice the size of Austria or more than two and a half times the size of Bavaria.

Population
Oklahoma has more than 3.8 million inhabitants. More than 610,000 of them live in the state’s capital and largest metropolis, Oklahoma City alone. 8.6% of the inhabitants are of Indian origin.

Local time
There is one time zone in Oklahoma, Central Standard Time /CST – the time difference is 7 hours (minus) compared to CET. Daylight Saving Time (DST) applies from the 2nd Sunday in March to the 2nd Sunday in November.

Arriving
by plane
The main airports in Oklahoma are Tulsa International Airport (TUL) and in Oklahoma City Will Rogers World Airport (OKC). The latter is located almost 10 km southwest of Oklahoma City. The airports can be reached from Austria/Germany via Washington, New York or Chicago.

Climate
“Big Sky Country” – endless horizon and constant wind shape Oklahoma as well as its neighboring state Kansas. A more endless horizon, such a wide firmament, grandiose starry skies and weather phenomena like here, you will hardly find anywhere else. The ideal travel time is April and May, when everything is in bloom and the days are particularly long, but September and October are also ideal for a visit. If you want to enjoy numerous events, such as open-air concerts, pow wows or rodeos, you should travel between May and September.

The annual average temperature is 18°C, in winter (January) it can be as cold as minus 8°C, in summer (July) it can get hotter than 30°C. Winters tend to be milder in the southern regions and cooler further north. Blizzards do occur, with snow rarely staying for long.

Average temperatures in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in °C
Month Jan Feb March Apr May June July Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Max 2 4 11 18 24 28 30 29 26 19 11 3
Min -7 -5 0 6 12 17 18 18 13 7 1 -6

Tips for traveling through Oklahoma

In the capital, Oklahoma City, Stockyards City – still the world’s largest trading center for cattle – and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, one of the best western museums in the USA, bring back memories of the adventurous days of the “Wild West”. In addition, the “Horse Show Capital of the World” offers numerous horse shows and is the venue for the Red Earth Festival, one of the largest Indian festivals in the USA. A modern skyline, the Boathouse District – perfect for water sports fans – and Historic Bricktown with its lively nightlife make the city with its 610,000 inhabitants attractive and diverse.

The small town of Guthrie, just north of Oklahoma City, was formed in just 24 hours during the 1889 “land rush” when the government opened up Indian lands for settlement. The whole town is now a national monument and a stroll down Main Street will bring back memories of old westerns.

Prosperous thanks to oil discoveries in the 1920s, Tulsa developed as the second largest city(approx. 400,000 inhabitants) to the center of the oil industry. Don’t miss Tulsa’s landmark, the Golden Driller – the giant statue of an oil worker. The city gained prosperity through the ‘Black Gold’, which is still evident today in the cityscape – with numerous Art Deco buildings – and in several art collections and magnificent villas. The city, with its vibrant Brady Arts District (home of the Woody Guthrie Center), is also credited with being the birthplace of Route 66. The sculpture “East Meets West” hints at the figurative meaning of the historic route that ran from Chicago to Los Angeles. It also represents the transition from the old west to the modern age. Many of the “oil barons” were philanthropists and invested heavily in culture. For example, theirs is the Gilcrease Museum gilcrease.org, the Philbrook Museum of Art philbrook.org, Woolaroc www.woolaroc.org, Frank L. Wright’s Price Tower www.pricetower.org in Bartlesville to the north, and the Marland Mansion in Ponca City www.marlandmansion.com.

“Native America”
​​Due to the fact that Oklahoma is home to 39 Native American peoples today, pow wows such as the Red Earth Native American Cultural Festival in Oklahoma City in early June or the Standing Bear Pow Wow in Ponca City are among the highlights of a trip. Native American cultural centers and museums such as the Chickasaw Cultural Center in Sulfur www.chickasawculturalcenter.com, the Comanche National Museum and Cultural Center in Lawton www.comanchemuseum.com, the Standing Bear Monument Museum in Ponca City standingbearpark.com are also worth seeing, informative and entertaining or the Cherokee Heritage Center in the Cherokee capital of Tahlequah www.cherokeeheritage.org.

“Get your kicks on Route 66”
The almost 4,000-kilometer-long legendary overland route once crossed eight states between Chicago and Los Angeles. The 400-mile section through Oklahoma is considered particularly worth seeing. In Clinton, the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum, in Elk City the National Route 66 Museum, and in Chandler the Route 66 Interpretive Center commemorate the historic route. Other “eye-catchers” along the route are, for example, the “Milk Bottle Building”, the “Blue Whale”, the “Old Round Barn”, “POPS” – a modernized gas station with diner, which is known for its huge range of lemonades – or ” Tally’s Diner”.

Oklahoma Information