Good Morning...HAPPY BIRTHDAY OKLAHOMA

November 16, 1907, Oklahoma becomes a state!


Oklahoma flag...1922 to present

On this day 99 years ago, Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory collectively enter the United States as Oklahoma, the 46th state. Thus, today officially kicks off OUr centennial year celebrations.



Oklahoma, with a name derived from the Choctaw Indian words okla, meaning "people," and humma, meaning "red," has a history of human occupation dating back 15,000 years.


State flag, 1911-1922. We got rid of it because in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, too many Okies thought it looked "Soviet." Seriously.

The first Europeans to visit the region were Spanish explorers in the 16th century, and in the 18th century the Spanish and French struggled for control of the territory. The United States acquired Oklahoma from France in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase.


From Arrows to Atoms...US postage stamp commemorating the 50th anniversary of statehood.

After the War of 1812, the U.S. government decided to remove Indian tribes from the settled eastern lands of the United States and move them west to the unsettled lands of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska. In 1828, Congress reserved Oklahoma for Indians and in 1834 formally ceded it to five southeastern tribes as Indian Territory.



Many Cherokees refused to abandon their homes east of the Mississippi, and so the U.S. Army moved them west in a forced march known as the "Trail of Tears." The uprooted tribes joined Plains Indians that had long occupied the area, and Indian nations with fixed boundaries and separate governments were established in the region.

During the American Civil War, most tribes in Indian Territory supported the South. With the defeat of the Confederacy in 1865, the territory was placed under U.S. military rule.



White cattlemen and settlers began to covet the virgin ranges of Oklahoma, and after the arrival of the railroad in the 1870s, illegal white incursion into Indian Territory flourished.


Even John Wayne hisself made a movie about early Oklahoma

Most of these illegal squatters were expelled, but pressure continued until the federal government agreed in 1889 to open two million acres in central Oklahoma for white settlement.

At noon on April 22, 1889, a pistol shot signaled the opening of the new land, and tens of thousands of people rushed to stake claims. The following year, the region was divided into Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory.


1889 Land Run sculpture. Longer than a football field, its the world's longest.



In 1907, Congress decided to admit Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory into the Union as a single state, with all Indians in the state becoming U.S. citizens. Representatives of the two territories drafted a constitution, and on September 17, 1907, it was approved by voters of the two territories. On November 16, Oklahoma was welcomed into the United States by President Theodore Roosevelt.


Teddy signs the papers making Oklahoma the 46th state.


The crowd waits in Guthrie for the word.

Oklahoma initially prospered as an agricultural state, but the drought years of the 1930s made the state part of the Dust Bowl. During the Depression, poor tenant farmers known as "Okies" were forced to travel west seeking better opportunities.


Okie's camped outside of Fresno CA, during the Dust Bowl years just trying to make enough to buy something to eat to keep their families alive

In the 1940s, WWII brought prosperity back to Oklahoma because the war meant plenty of work. America needed oil, beef, pork, grain and labor willing to work hard, and Oklahoma delivered in fine style.

Thirty years later, oil production brought another major economic boom in the 1970s. I remember it pretty much dried-up by the early 80's when you used to see "Dear Lord, Let It Hit Forty Dollars a Barrel Again and This Time, I Won't Pizz It All Away"



As anyone who drives knows, oil hit "forty dollars a barrel" again and more. Therefore, somebody must be getting rich somewhere. Actually, the only upside to high gas prices is the fact it is helping OUr state's economy.

We're a great state and a great people. We've been droughted, tornadoed all to hell and back, bombed, hailed on, foreclosed on, iced-up, robbed by bandits, shot at and missed, sh*t at and hit, been broker than a guy trying to sell refrigerators to the eskimoes and richer than a Rockefeller, but when its all said and done...WE'VE SURVIVED AND THRIVED!



So, celebrate statehood this weekend. Include your family too.



You can go to an Oklahoma institution and buy a banana split.


Go visit the superb Oklahoma History Center next door to the capitol in OKC


You can go to the Arbuckles and get licked by a camel at "Arbuckle Wilderness"


You can roll to the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in OKC (I know they changed the name of the place to something more impressive sounding, but it'll always be the Cowboy Hall of Fame to me.)


Watch "Oklahoma" on DVD or listen to the soundtrack.


Get your kicks on Route 66.


Pay tribute to the greatest Okie in Claremore


Drill for oil in Green Country


On the way back, stop by Garth and Trisha's place outside Owasso and say "hi"


Eat tater tots from Sonic...founded in Oklahoma


Catch a catfish in Lake Texoma


Watch the Sooners play football this Saturday in Waco, texass.


Have an Arby's sammich...founded in Oklahoma


You could even go watch the pokies play hoops in Stoolwater.


Buy a piece of Oklahoma "artwork"


Go visit OUr state Capitol

Whatever you do, be proud you're an Okie and be proud of Oklahoma, the 46th State!

 

You left out our other uniquely-Oklahoma attraction.......3.2 beer!

 

Let's hear it for MANIFEST DESTINY! YEAH!!!

 

Best state EVAR!

 

for shame...

I'm sure this is what Homey really meant to post:






You can visit the gravesite of Captain David L. Payne, the Father of Oklahoma, in STILLWATER.






BOOMER!!!

 

GREAT THREAD !!!!!!!!!!

my Dad was a charter member, moved from far north mo. to okmulgee
area, with his family, in 1904.

my Mother ,born in 1911, was an "Okie from Muskogee".

my sister & i are Okies from Okmulgee".

 

Great job again, Homey!

I think I'll watch "Oklahoma" and dream of peppermint ice cream from Braum's...

 

Fantastic post... too bad I'm at my in-laws house where the only internet is dial up.

 

Why do you hate the Heavener Runestone?

 

Not to rain on OUr parade but it was forty-nine years ago today the Streak came to an end at the hands of a treacherous Notre Dame regime.

It never rained on the Great One before November 16th, 1957:



When the Irish scored late and secured a 7-0 victory on Owen Field, the Oklahoma skies opened up and released a torential downpour.

 

I'm a third generation Okie myself. My grandpa was born in Lone Grove, I.T. in January 1907. Granny was born in Okemah (near Woody Guthrie's folks' place) in November 1911. Married in 1929. She was 18 and he was a lucky 22 y/o. They did the whole "Grapes of Wrath" dealio and lit out for Californy in 1931. Returned to Ardmore after the Depression loosened up some in 1937. They both lived the rest of their lives in Ardmore in the little house he built with his own hands. He passed in 1989 and she followed him to Glory in 1999. I still miss the heck out of them both. They were something.

 

Great post. My great-grandparents were actually Boomers in the land rush. Oklahoma, the best state EVER !!!

 

Oklahoma ****ing rules!

 

It sounds like the timeline is right, so ask your parent from Ardmore sometime if they remember a GW "Puny" Sparger or a Julia Sparger (my great-grandparents).

Puny did a bunch of stuff -- owned a few restaurants and bars, was the JP for awhile, announced for the local minor league team, apparently sued the city once over selling beer (and won) -- and Julia was the English and Latin teacher at the local high school.

 

Does the NCAA know about this? Will they force the state to change its name?

 

Nope...we share the sales of that fine, fine brew with a couple of other states, including Utah, Colorado, Minnesota, Colorado, and Kansas.

op:

 

My granddad prolly did. He was a cop in Ardmore for about 25 years. His tales of hauling in drunk roughnecks and other oilpatch types used to keep me in stitches. We had a street in Ardmore over by the ATSF train tracks which intersects Main. It's called Caddo St. In its heyday (about 1935-1960) Caddo was the epicenter for all the Ardmore beer joints and pool halls. Saturday night on Caddo was apparently a thing to behold.

Oh yeah, he always said arresting a drunk and belligerent woman was a waaay bigger pain than arresting a drunk and belligerent man. Evidently, a woman would try to cut a cop quicker than a man would.

 

We could change it to "Riverhawks."

 

This thread is wholly inaccurate without mention of the Heavener Runestone.

I'm just sayin'.

 

Great Post Homey!! I am spreadin' the Oklahoma love all day around Baja Oklahoma!!!!!