Oklahoma: A History

Few other states can match Oklahoma's reputation as a last frontier.

Indians, pioneers, land rushes, and oil dominate many an American's picture of Oklahoma's history. Incomplete as such an impression is, the frontier experience did leave a heritage of individualism distinctive of Oklahoma character. Oklahoma retains much of its popular renown as a land of cowboys and Indians, oil derricks, and multimillionaires. But it has become something quite different, as well: a state prospering from agriculture, diversified industry, and growing urban centers where a majority of Oklahomans now live. Though the state has changed greatly since its frontier beginnings, its citizens remain as individualistic as ever, modern heirs to that spirit of "restlessness that pushed people across the North American continent in unending pursuit of richer soils, better opportunities, and the chance to begin anew."