Around Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City is the capital and most populous city of the state of Oklahoma. It is the 20th-most populous U.S. city, with a population of around 700,000.

Oklahoma City was settled on April 22, 1889, when the area known as the “Unassigned Lands” was opened for settlement in an event known as “The Land Run“.

Oklahoma state was admitted to the Union in 1907, Oklahoma City had surpassed Guthrie, the territorial capital, as the new state’s population center and commercial hub. Soon after, the capital was moved from Guthrie to Oklahoma City.

Oklahoma City was a significant stop on U.S. Route 66 during the early part of the 20th century

We are very familiar with the city and have visited it many times and most of those visits are covered on other posts.

This time we visited:

The First Americans Museum was inaugurated on September 18, 2021. Visitor enter through the Remembrance Gate that consists of two inclining 40-foot walls of Mesquabuck stone. The name of the Potawatomi Chief Mes’kwah-buk, “whose name signifies the color of the sky at sunrise and sunset” is inscribed into the stone face.

Visitors then enter The Hall of People, which takes inspiration from the traditional Wichita Grasshouse that were the original inhabitants of the area. The massive glass semi-dome is supported by ten columns of various stones. Each column represents the ten miles traveled each day by Indigenous people during forced removal to Indian Territory, while the variation in stone represents the distinction of tribal groups that came to the area. Behind the museum is a semi-circular earthen mound which pays tribute to the great mound-builder civilizations. The sunken area within the mound serves as an outdoor Festival Grounds.

It is a very educative museum with comprehensive displays on the history of the 39 federally recognized tribes of Oklahoma, beginning with creation stories to the violent removal of Natives by Europeans and the United States, to present day.

We then drove around some of OKC Route 66 attractions such as the Braum’s Milk Bottle and The Western Trail Trading Post and finish with a visit to the 1889 Territorial School in the nearby city of Edmond.