History of Oklahoma City - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The history of Oklahoma City refers to the history of city of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Oklahoma City is the capital and the largest city in the state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 31st among United States cities in population. The city's population, from the 2010 census, was 579,999, with a metro-area population of 1,252,987 . In 2010, the Oklahoma...

, and the land on which it developed. Oklahoma City's history begins with the settlement of "unassigned lands

Unassigned Lands

Unassigned Lands, or Oklahoma, were in the center of the lands ceded to the United States by the Creek and Seminole Indians following the Civil War and on which no other tribes had been settled...

" in the region in the 1880s, and continues with the city's development through statehood, World War I and the Oklahoma City bombing.

Early history

Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

was first settled on April 22, 1889, when the area known as the "unassigned lands

Unassigned Lands

Unassigned Lands, or Oklahoma, were in the center of the lands ceded to the United States by the Creek and Seminole Indians following the Civil War and on which no other tribes had been settled...

" (that is, land in Indian territory

Indian Territory

The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...

that had not been assigned to any tribes) was opened for settlement in an event known as "The Land Run". Some 10,000 homesteaders settled the area now known as Oklahoma City; the population doubled between 1890 and 1900.

By the time Oklahoma was admitted to the Union

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

in 1907, Oklahoma City had supplanted Guthrie

Guthrie, Oklahoma

Guthrie is a city in and the county seat of Logan County, Oklahoma, United States, and a part of the Oklahoma City Metroplex. The population was 9,925 at the 2000 census.Guthrie was the territorial and later the first state capital for Oklahoma...

, the territorial capital, as the population center and commercial hub of the new state. Early city leaders John Shartel, Anton Classen, James W. Maney

James W. Maney

James W. Maney was an American engineer and railroad contractor during the late 19th and early 20th century. He was an early resident of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, helped to shape its development, and lived there most of his life...

and Henry Overholser

Henry Overholser

Henry Overholser was an Oklahoma businessman, county commissioner, and important contributor to the development of Oklahoma City. He was the first to erect two-story buildings in the city, both of which were torn down in 1907...

helped grow the city, which developed an efficient trolley

Tram

A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...

system, a major regional commercial center, a railway hub and had attracted several large meat packing plants along with other industry. The city, now with a population of 64,000, put in a petition to become the new state capital. A popular vote was held, with Governor

Governor of Oklahoma

The governor of the state of Oklahoma is the head of state for the state of Oklahoma, United States. Under the Oklahoma Constitution, the governor is also the head of government, serving as the chief executive of the Oklahoma executive branch, of the government of Oklahoma...

Charles N. Haskell

Charles Nathaniel Haskell was an American lawyer, oilman, and statesman who served as the first Governor of Oklahoma. Haskell played a crucial role in drafting the Oklahoma Constitution as well as Oklahoma's statehood and admission into the United States as the 46th state in 1907...

as one of the strongest advocates for Oklahoma City's candidacy, which Oklahoma City won. The Oklahoma State Capitol

Oklahoma State Capitol

The Oklahoma State Capitol is the house of government of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It is the building that houses the Oklahoma Legislature, and the meeting place of the Oklahoma Supreme Court. It is located along Lincoln Boulevard in Oklahoma City. The present structure includes a dome that was...

was established at N.E. 23rd Street and Lincoln Boulevard. The capitol lacked a dome after its initial construction; it could not be added by the time the building was completed in 1919 due to lack of funds. A dome was finally added to the building in 2002.

Pre World War II

The new city continued to grow at a steady rate until December 4, 1928, when oil

Oil

An oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and does not mix with water but may mix with other oils and organic solvents. This general definition includes vegetable oils, volatile essential oils, petrochemical oils, and synthetic oils....

was discovered in the city. Oil wells popped up everywhere, even on the south lawn on the capitol building, and the sudden influx of oil money within the city and throughout the state greatly accelerated the city's growth. While those who had made money during this early oil boom largely escaped the Depression, the majority of Americans and Oklahomans were not so lucky. By 1935, rural migrants and unemployed workers had built a massive shanty town

Shanty town

A shanty town is a slum settlement of impoverished people who live in improvised dwellings made from scrap materials: often plywood, corrugated metal and sheets of plastic...

(or "Hooverville

Hooverville

A 'Hooverville' was the popular name for shanty towns built by homeless people during the Great Depression. They were named after the President of the United States at the time, Herbert Hoover, because he allegedly let the nation slide into depression...

" after president Herbert Hoover

Herbert Hoover

Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...

) on the south bank of the North Canadian River

North Canadian River

The North Canadian River is a tributary of the Canadian River, approximately long, that flows through New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma in the United States....

. The river often flooded, bringing disease and misery to the people living there. As part of the "New Deal

New Deal

The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...

", the Works Progress Administration

Works Progress Administration

The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...

and Civilian Conservation Corps

Civilian Conservation Corps

The Civilian Conservation Corps was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families, ages 18–25. A part of the New Deal of President Franklin D...

greatly reduced the level of the river to prevent flooding (a move which would later become a problem for city leaders stuck with a nearly empty river) and built one of the first experiments with public housing in the country.

A municipal-owned Elm Grove camp built in 1932 and which offered better amenities to residents who paid $1 a day or donated eight hours or labor. The camp was eliminated in 1933 because of a fear that it would attract more homeless residents to the city. A May Avenue Camp continued to exist in 1939.

Postwar developments

The Second World War and the gorwing war industries brought recovery to the nation and Oklahoma City, and the post war period saw Oklahoma City become a major hub in the national Interstate Highway System

Interstate Highway System

The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, , is a network of limited-access roads including freeways, highways, and expressways forming part of the National Highway System of the United States of America...

. Additionally, Tinker Air Force Base

Tinker Air Force Base

Tinker Air Force Base is a major U.S. Air Force base, with tenant U.S. Navy and other Department of Defense missions, located in the southeast Oklahoma City, Oklahoma area, directly south of the suburb of Midwest City, Oklahoma.-Overview:...

in Midwest City

Midwest City, Oklahoma

Midwest City is a city in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, United States, and a part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, the population was 54,371, making it the eighth largest city in the state....

became the largest air depot in the country in the post war period, a fact which made Oklahoma City the likely target for a possible Soviet nuclear strike. As the civil rights

Civil rights

Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...

era dawned, downtown Oklahoma City became the site of a revolution in civil rights tactics. History teacher Clara Luper

Clara Luper

Clara Shepard Luper was a civic leader, retired schoolteacher, and a pioneering leader in the American Civil Rights Movement...

and some of her students from nearby Douglass High School led the first "sit in" in American history to desegregate the lunch counter at a downtown department store

Department store

A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...

in 1958. [When they succeeded, the tactic was adopted throughout the country, notably by the young activists of SNCC

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ' was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It emerged from a series of student meetings led by Ella Baker held at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina in April 1960...

.

From February 3 to July 29, 1964, Oklahoma City was subjected to eight sonic boom

Sonic boom

A sonic boom is the sound associated with the shock waves created by an object traveling through the air faster than the speed of sound. Sonic booms generate enormous amounts of sound energy, sounding much like an explosion...

s per day in a controversial experiment known as the Oklahoma City sonic boom tests

Oklahoma City sonic boom tests

The Oklahoma City sonic boom tests, also known as Operation Bongo II, refer to a controversial experiment in which 1,253 sonic booms were carried out over Oklahoma City, Oklahoma over a period of six months in 1964...

. The intent was to quantify the sociological and economic costs of a supersonic transport

Supersonic transport

A supersonic transport is a civilian supersonic aircraft designed to transport passengers at speeds greater than the speed of sound. The only SSTs to see regular service to date have been Concorde and the Tupolev Tu-144. The last passenger flight of the Tu-144 was in June 1978 with its last ever...

aircraft. The experiment resulted in 15,400 damage claims. The persistence of the experiment and the 94% rejection rate of damage claims led to turmoil at all levels of government and embroiled Senator Mike Monroney's office in a battle with the Federal Aviation Administration

Federal Aviation Administration

The Federal Aviation Administration is the national aviation authority of the United States. An agency of the United States Department of Transportation, it has authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the U.S...

. The embarrassment over the Oklahoma City experiments partially contributed to the demise of the Boeing 2707

Boeing 2707

The Boeing 2707 was developed as the first American supersonic transport . After winning a competition for a government-funded contract to build an American SST, Boeing began development at its facilities in Seattle, Washington...

SST project seven years later.

Decline and stagnation

As the 1960s continued, however, Oklahoma City began to decline. By 1970, "white flight

White flight

White flight has been a term that originated in the United States, starting in the mid-20th century, and applied to the large-scale migration of whites of various European ancestries from racially mixed urban regions to more racially homogeneous suburban or exurban regions. It was first seen as...

" and suburbanization had drained the life from the central business district and the surrounding areas. The oil beneath the city had begun to dry up, and property values declined. The city leaders then engaged in a disastrous program of "urban renewal" which succeeded primarily in demolishing much of the aging theater district and the impressive Biltmore Hotel

Biltmore Hotel

Bowman-Biltmore Hotels was a chain created by hotel magnate John McEntee Bowman.The name evokes the Vanderbilt family's Biltmore Estate, whose buildings and gardens within are privately owned historical landmarks and tourist attractions in Asheville, North Carolina, United States. The name has...

. The city had planned to build a massive shopping mall

Shopping mall

A shopping mall, shopping centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version...

called "The Galleria" downtown, but money for renewal ran out before they could construct more than the parking garage for it. This left downtown Oklahoma City in even worse shape than it had been in, with vacant lots where Victorian brownstones once stood. The 1970s and 1980s were periods of stagnation for Oklahoma City proper (and was the case for almost all major cities in the United States) and periods of affluence and explosive development for the suburbs. With the exception of The Myriad Gardens, little was done to improve the inner city or the central business district during this time, even as the oil boom of the late 1970s brought a flood of money into the area.

Recent history and renewal

By 1992, the city was in such dire need of improvement that it was losing jobs, population, and even air carriers to more attractive cities. With this in mind, Mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

Ron Norrick pushed through a massive plan for capitol improvements throughout Downtown called the Metropolitan Area Projects Plan

Metropolitan Area Projects Plan

The Metropolitan Area Projects Plan, or MAPS, was a $350 million public works and redevelopment project in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma during the middle to late 1990s, funded by a temporary voter-approved sales tax increase.-History:...

, or MAPS. MAPS called for a five-year, one-cent sales tax

Sales tax

A sales tax is a tax, usually paid by the consumer at the point of purchase, itemized separately from the base price, for certain goods and services. The tax amount is usually calculated by applying a percentage rate to the taxable price of a sale....

to fund a new ballpark, a canal

Canal

Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...

through Bricktown

Bricktown (Oklahoma City)

Bricktown is an entertainment district just east of downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma . It was formerly a major warehouse district. The major attractions of the district are the AT&T Bricktown Ballpark, the navigable Bricktown Canal, and the 16-screen Harkins movie theatre...

, a new central library

Library

In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...

, a large indoor arena

Arena

An arena is an enclosed area, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theater, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators. The key feature of an arena is that the event space is the...

, renovations to the fairgrounds

Oklahoma State Fair

The Oklahoma State Fair is a large fair and exposition in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It takes place in mid-September each year, and is one of two state fairs in Oklahoma. During an 11-day run, the Oklahoma State Fair attracts close to one million people. By a small margin, it is larger in attendance...

and the civic center

Civic center

A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building...

, and a series of low water dam

Dam

A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...

s on the North Canadian River

Canadian River

The Canadian River is the longest tributary of the Arkansas River. It is about long, starting in Colorado and traveling through New Mexico, the Texas Panhandle, and most of Oklahoma....

to make it attractive and accessible to small boats. Though still stinging from the failure of "urban renewal

Urban renewal

Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...

", the people of Oklahoma City passed the measure, eventually raising over 1 billion

1000000000 (number)

1,000,000,000 is the natural number following 999,999,999 and preceding 1,000,000,001.In scientific notation, it is written as 109....

dollars

United States dollar

The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

for improvements to the city and bringing life back to the central city. As Oklahoma City moves through the twenty-first century, new changes continue to bring population, jobs, entertainment, and improvement. in 2004 a new Dell call center brought over 250 jobs, and plans to employ over 19,000 more jobs in the future. 2005 brought Oklahoma their first major league Basketball franchise, the OKC/New Orleans Hornets, followed by becoming the permanent home of the renamed Seattle NBA franchise, now the OKC Thunder, in 2008. Many other corporations are finding OKC their home and the population is once again increasing at a very high rate. Also, a new addition to the downtown skyline, Devon Energy Center

Devon Tower

Devon World Headquarters Tower is a 50-story corporate skyscraper under construction in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Construction began October 6, 2009, and is expected to be completed in 2012...

, was recently topped-out at 50 stories and a height of 850 feet.

The Oklahoma City bombing

See main article: Oklahoma City bombing
Oklahoma City bombing
The Oklahoma City bombing was a terrorist bomb attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. It was the most destructive act of terrorism on American soil until the September 11, 2001 attacks. The Oklahoma blast claimed 168 lives, including 19...

In the midst of this atmosphere of optimism and change, Timothy McVeigh

Timothy McVeigh

Timothy James McVeigh was a United States Army veteran and security guard who detonated a truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995...

drove a rented truck full of explosives to the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building

Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building

The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was a United States Federal Government complex located at 200 N.W. 5th Street in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States. The building was the target of the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995, which killed 168 people, including 19 children...

in downtown Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. The explosion killed 168 people (including 19 children) and injured more than 680, as well as damaging and destroying many surrounding buildings. Until the attacks of September 11, it was the largest terrorist attack

Terrorism

Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...

on American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

soil, and it remains the single largest domestic terrorist attack in American history

History of the United States

The history of the United States traditionally starts with the Declaration of Independence in the year 1776, although its territory was inhabited by Native Americans since prehistoric times and then by European colonists who followed the voyages of Christopher Columbus starting in 1492. The...

.

The site is now home to the Oklahoma City National Memorial

Oklahoma City National Memorial

The Oklahoma City National Memorial is a memorial in the United States that honors the victims, survivors, rescuers, and all who were affected by the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995. The memorial is located in downtown Oklahoma City on the former site of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal...

. The memorial was designed by Oklahoma City architects Hans and Torrey Butzer and Sven Berg and dedicated by President Clinton on April 19, 2000, exactly five years after the bombing. Oklahoma City has since rebuilt, and except for the memorial, there is little evidence of the bombing.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Bureau of Investigation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...

led an investigation, known as OKBOMB, the largest criminal case in America's history (FBI agents conducted 28,000 interviews, amassed 3.5 ST (3.2 MT) of evidence, and collected nearly one billion pieces of information). Special Agent in Charge Weldon L. Kennedy

Weldon L. Kennedy

Weldon Lynn Kennedy was a special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and served for 33 years. He is known for his involvement in the Atlanta Prison Riots and the Oklahoma City bombing.He retired as the FBI's No...

. commanded the largest crime task force since the investigation into the assassination of John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy assassination

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas...

. The task force included 300 FBI agents, 200 officers from the Oklahoma City Police Department, 125 members of the Oklahoma National Guard

Oklahoma National Guard

The Oklahoma National Guard, a division of the Oklahoma Department of the Military, is the component of the United States National Guard in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It comprises both Army and Air National Guard components. The Governor of Oklahoma is Commander-in-Chief of the Oklahoma National...

, and 55 officers from the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety

Oklahoma Department of Public Safety