Oklahoma City

About Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city of Oklahoma, spread across the rolling prairie along the North Canadian River, which runs through downtown as the Oklahoma River. The city was born in a single day: on April 22, 1889, the Land Run opened the Unassigned Lands to settlement, and some 10,000 people rushed in to claim lots and build a tent city by nightfall. Cattle, railroads and the discovery of oil in 1928 drove its growth, and oil wells famously still stand on the grounds of the State Capitol.

Today Oklahoma City has around 700,000 residents and a renewed, energetic downtown. Bricktown, a former warehouse district, is lined with restaurants, bars and a canal with water taxis, the Thunder play NBA basketball at the Paycom Center, and Scissortail Park has given the city a large central green space. The Asian District along Classen Boulevard, the artsy Plaza District and Film Row reflect the city's growing creative scene, and its western heritage remains strong in the Stockyards City district, home to the world's largest stocker and feeder cattle market.

Visitors come for history and culture as much as for cowboy roots. The Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum movingly honors the 168 people killed in the 1995 bombing, the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum holds one of the finest collections of western art, and the First Americans Museum tells the stories of the 39 tribal nations of Oklahoma. The Myriad Botanical Gardens, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art with its Chihuly glass collection, the Boathouse District on the Oklahoma River and Route 66 landmarks round out the city.