Oklahoma General Information

GENERAL

Abbreviated as OK on ABBREVIATIONFINDER.ORG, Oklahoma is a US state in the central southern United States, north of Texas. The word Oklahoma comes from the Choctaw language: “okla”, the human being and “humma”, red. The capital of Oklahoma is Oklahoma City. Oklahoma covers an area of 181,186 km² and is home to approximately 3.35 million people.

Nickname

Sooner State

Capital

Oklahoma City

Biggest town

Oklahoma City

Area

Rank (within the US): 20th out of 50 states

Total: 181,196 km²

Land: 178,023 km²

Water (%): 3,173 km² (1.8%)

Residents

Rank (within the US): 27th out of 50 states

Total (2000): 3,450,654

Density: 19 / km²

State membership

Place: 46th

Since: November 16, 1907

GEOGRAPHY

Time zone: Central: UTC –6 / –5

Latitude: 33 ° 35’N to 37 ° N

Longitude 94 ° 29’W to 103 ° W

Width: 355 km

Length: 645 km

Highest position: 1,516 m

Average location: 395 m

Lowest position: 88 m

Oklahoma is largely in the Inner Plains area. The central lowland is taken up by the Osage Plains, a gently undulating plain that is only interrupted in a few places by hill country. The lowland region merges into the highlands to the east. In the northeast it is the foothills of the Ozark plateau. Rivers have dug deep gorges into this limestone massif. To the south of this plateau are the Ouachita Mountains made of sandstone. In the extreme southeast, the state has a share of the Gulf Coast Plain. To the west, the Central Lowlands merge into the Great Plains. The northeast of the state is crossed by the Arkansas Valley, which includes the Arkansas River and the surrounding plains. This area is very fertile and it is one of the most important agricultural regions in the state.

HISTORY

Oklahoma has a special position within the USA. The area fell to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. However, these recognized no value in this area and assigned it between 1817 and 1830 to the Indian tribes of the Creek, Seminoles, Cherokee, Choctaw and Chickasaw, who were expelled from the eastern states. about 50,000 people were herded into Oklahoma, where they met other Indian tribes already resident. This relocation went down in history as the “Trail of Tears”.

In 1834 the area was declared an Indian territory. Many Indian tribes still have their political headquarters in Oklahoma today. Although the government officially forbade white people to settle in the country in 1880, the population repeatedly violated the borders. Negotiations with the Creek and Seminoles finally began in 1885, resulting in two million acres of land being released to settlers on April 22, 1889. The result was the “Oklahoma Land Run”, in which numerous settlers streamed into the country within a very short time and Oklahoma City emerged almost overnight. Many of the new settlers, the so-called “Sooners”, had already staked their claims in advance, which earned the state the nickname “Sooner State”.

Oklahoma was organized as a territory in 1890, and the settlement area continued to expand until 1906, before Oklahoma joined the United States on November 16, 1907. After changing periods of economic growth and crisis, the discovery of rich oil and natural gas discoveries in 1928 brought the country upswing and prosperity. Nonetheless, Oklahoma was repeatedly hit by droughts and sandstorms, which resulted in an exodus of the rural population via the legendary Route 66 to the western states. You can read it in John Steinbeck’s “Fruits of Anger”, who immortalized the extract from the “Dust Bowl” in literary terms.

FLORA FAUNA

Forests cover about 16% of the total area. The predominant tree species are pine, walnut, pecan, hickory, elm, ash, oak, juniper, American Judas tree and poplar. Deer, otters, raccoons, mink and squirrels are native to the forest areas. Rabbits, ground squirrels, prairie dogs and coyotes live in the prairie regions. The bird world is extremely species-rich. The most common bird species are blackbird, mockingbird, robin, blue jay, crow and sparrow. Wild ducks are common in the Great Salt Flats in the north of the state.

POPULATION

Oklahoma has a population of about 3.35 million; The population density is 17 residents per square kilometer. Most of the population is concentrated in the eastern part of the state. The proportion of whites is 82%, blacks make up 7% of the total population. In Oklahoma, Native American groups are far more represented than in most other states, with around 250,000 members (about 8% of the population). The largest Native American groups are the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminoles. In addition, Asian ethnic groups (including Vietnamese, Chinese and Koreans) live in Oklahoma.

ECONOMY

Oklahoma has several major industries. One of the industries is agriculture. It mainly includes wheat cultivation, especially in the west, and cultivation of corn, millet, oats, barley, cotton in the southwest. Another branch of the economy is mining. Primarily crude oil and natural gas are extracted, gypsum and iodine are also important raw materials. Coal, granite and limestone are also mined. In animal husbandry, cattle farming dominates.

CLIMATE

Oklahoma’s climate is subtropical and humid in the southeast and continentally dry in the west. Large temperature fluctuations during the day are typical. Summers are hot and winters are often quite mild. The average annual temperature is between 14 ° C in the west and 19 ° C in the southeast. The extreme values determined so far were -32 ° C (1930) and 49 ° C (1943). Large parts of the state are regularly hit by tornadoes. A series of tornadoes in March 1999 caused particularly severe devastation. The top speed of the cyclones was 420 kilometers per hour.

MOST IMPORTANT CITIES

Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Norman, Lawton, Broken Arrow, Edmond, Midwest City, Enid, Moore, Stillwater

Oklahoma Counties and County Seats

According to Countryaah, there are a total of 77 counties in the state of Oklahoma.

1. Adair County (County Seat: Stilwell)
2. Alfalfa County (County Seat: Cherokee)
3. Atoka County (County Seat: Atoka)
4. Beaver County (County Seat: Beaver)
5. Beckham County (County Seat: Sayre)
6. Blaine County (County Seat: Watonga)
7. Bryan County (County Seat: Durant)
8. Caddo County (County Seat: Anadarko)
9. Canadian County (County Seat: El Reno)
10. Carter County (County Seat: Ardmore)
11. Cherokee County (County Seat: Tahlequah)
12. Choctaw County (County Seat: Hugo)
13. Cimarron County (County Seat: Boise City)
14. Cleveland County (County Seat: Norman)
15. Coal County (County Seat: Coalgate)
16. Comanche County (County Seat: Lawton)
17. Cotton County (County Seat: Walters)
18. Craig County (County Seat: Vinita)
19. Creek County (County Seat: Sapulpa)
20. Custer County (County Seat: Arapaho)
21. Delaware County (County Seat: Jay)
22. Dewey County (County Seat: Taloga)
23. Ellis County (County Seat: Arnett)
24. Garfield County (County Seat: Enid)
25. Garvin County (County Seat: Pauls Valley)
26. Grady County (County Seat: Chickasha)
27. Grant County (County Seat: Medford)
28. Greer County (County Seat: Mangum)
29. Harmon County (County Seat: Hollis)
30. Harper County (County Seat: Buffalo)
31. Haskell County (County Seat: Stigler)
32. Hughes County (County Seat: Holdenville)
33. Jackson County (County Seat: Altus)
34. Jefferson County (County Seat: Waurika)
35. Johnston County (County Seat: Tishomingo)
36. Kay County (County Seat: Newkirk)
37. Kingfisher County (County Seat: Kingfisher)
38. Kiowa County (County Seat: Hobart)
39. Latimer County (County Seat: Wilburton)
40. Le Flore County (County Seat: Poteau)
41. Lincoln County (County Seat: Chandler)
42. Logan County (County Seat: Guthrie)
43. Love County (County Seat: Marietta)
44. Major County (County Seat: Fairview)
45. Marshall County (County Seat: Madill)
46. Mayes County (County Seat: Pryor)
47. McClain County (County Seat: Purcell)
48. McCurtain County (County Seat: Idabel)
49. McIntosh County (County Seat: Eufaula)
50. Murray County (County Seat: Sulphur)
51. Muskogee County (County Seat: Muskogee)
52. Noble County (County Seat: Perry)
53. Nowata County (County Seat: Nowata)
54. Okfuskee County (County Seat: Okemah)
55. Oklahoma County (County Seat: Oklahoma City)
56. Okmulgee County (County Seat: Okmulgee)
57. Osage County (County Seat: Pawhuska)
58. Ottawa County (County Seat: Miami)
59. Pawnee County (County Seat: Pawnee)
60. Payne County (County Seat: Stillwater)
61. Pittsburg County (County Seat: McAlester)
62. Pontotoc County (County Seat: Ada)
63. Pottawatomie County (County Seat: Shawnee)
64. Pushmataha County (County Seat: Antlers)
65. Roger Mills County (County Seat: Cheyenne)
66. Rogers County (County Seat: Claremore)
67. Seminole County (County Seat: Wewoka)
68. Sequoyah County (County Seat: Sallisaw)
69. Stephens County (County Seat: Duncan)
70. Texas County (County Seat: Guymon)
71. Tillman County (County Seat: Frederick)
72. Tulsa County (County Seat: Tulsa)
73. Wagoner County (County Seat: Wagoner)
74. Washington County (County Seat: Bartlesville)
75. Washita County (County Seat: Cordell)
76. Woods County (County Seat: Alva)
77. Woodward County (County Seat: Woodward)