Like a dystopian landscape from the old days of the wild west, the Unassigned Land lay seemingly forgotten for several years. The area now known as Oklahoma’s Panhandle was originally not destined to become part of the state. With the arrivals of the Europeans into the America’s, Spain took control of a large swath of […]
Category: History
Historical stories and facts
Shamrock, Oklahoma And The Legend Of The American Blarney Stone
Just south of Drumright, Oklahoma lies an almost abandoned ghost town bathed in Irish heritage. The town could have been named Ardmore, or Prairie View, but the few early settlers that lived there settled on Shamrock, Oklahoma. This wasn’t the first time the town founder established a town named Shamrock. Back in Illinois, he started […]
Oklahoma’s Historic Roads: U.S. 69 And The Texas Road
What began as a minor French fur trading trail became one of Oklahoma’s north/south transportation routes. Around 1802, the French Chouteau brothers, Pierre and Auguste from St. Louis established a flourishing trading post centered in the Three Forks area, near modern Muskogee. Furs purchased from the Osage would be sent along the Arkansas river to […]
Oklahoma’s Immigrants – Hidden Immigration History in Oklahoma
In the early 1900’s, European migration into Oklahoma was in full swing. During statehood, most of Oklahoma’s history focuses on Indian Territory and Native America, but there is a chapter that is often overlooked. Oklahoma’s Immigrant Story Immigration into the United States reached an all time high in 1907, the same year that Oklahoma was […]
The Golden Age of Prehistory: The Plains Village Farmers
Oklahoma entered into a golden age around 800 A.D., where civilization thrived and prehistoric empires divided East from West. To the east was the Caddoan empire, consisting of the Mississippian River Valley culture centered around Spiro Mounds in Eastern Oklahoma. To the west were small villages that dotted the landscape, forming a strong but loose […]
Rise of the Buffalo: How Oklahoma Helped Save the American Bison
By 1889, it was estimated that there were less than 1,000 wild buffalo left. A species that once thundered across the land had been hunted to near extinction. At one time, there were as many as sixty-million roaming throughout the Great Plains. Wanting to preserve an example of the bison for the U.S. National Museum, […]
Bob Wills and the Light Crust Doughboys: A Tale of an Iconic Oklahoma Musician
Life took him back to Tulsa, but the journey that Bob Wills took to get there was unique. During the 1930’s, radio was huge. It was also hugely expensive. Early on, Bob Wills and his band started to get a big following in Texas. Looking to expand into radio, and reach a bigger audience, they […]
The Ironic Fate of Oklahoma City’s First Mayor William Couch
History is full of irony, especially in the case of the first mayor of Oklahoma City and the infamous Boomer Sooner land runs. Mayor William L. Couch was an early leader of the sooner movement who had an interesting time of it. While most proponents of the land runs were peaceful, many under David L. […]
Folsom – 8,000 BC
They roamed across the great plains in small bands. Although most groups numbered less than a handful, they became experts at hunting the massive straight-horned Buffalo that dominated the region. Their life was primitive and nomadic, following where the great herds led them. Despite that, they were a highly intelligent people. They had not quite […]
The Strange Tale of Elmer McCurdy, a Bungling Oklahoma Outlaw
For sixty-six years, Oklahoma outlaw Elmer McCurdy traveled the United States quite a bit less than alive. In fact, Elmer McCurdy wasn’t laid to rest until 1977, even though he died in 1911 at the age of 31. Elmer was a charming devil, although not a very bright one. He was born in Maine to […]