During the 19th century, the hills and plains of Oklahoma – known as Indain Territory – became a reservation for tribes uprooted from homelands in the East. Today some 100,000 American Indians live in the Sooner State – so called after settlers who jumped the gun to stake claims in land rushes beginning in 1889, when the government opened the land for white settlement.

Anadarko's American Indian hall of fame honors such notable Indians as Sequoyah, who created the Cherokee alphabet, and Sacagawea, the Shoshone guide of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Nearby, Indian City, U.S.A., reconstructs villages featuring Pawnee earth lodges, Wichita grass houses, Plains tipis, and Apache wickiups.

In Comanche County, to the south, Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge preserves an island of the American West's virgin land. Here you can see a prairie dog town, and deer, elk, bison, and Texas longhorns roaming free. Venerable Fort Sill is right next door with its huge collection of artillery.

A tempting assortment of state parks also awaits the traveler. Many of these are located at man-made lakes. Two of the latter, Texoma and Eufaula, thrive as year-round playgrounds. On Poteau Mountain near Heavener as state park protects a great slab of rock carved with mysterious runic symbols.

Oklahoma City's capitol has the unique distinction of being surrounded by oil wells, one of which draws oil from beneath the building. Tulsa maintains its oil heritage with the international Petroleum Exposition, held every five years. With completion of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, Tulsa has gained a water route to the Gulf of Mexico and the Great Lakes.

The Chisholm Trail – which had its first cattle drive in 1867 – can be followed on U.S. 81. Rich wheat land rolls away to the horizon along the northern half of the route. In Ponca City a bronze statue by Bryant Backer pays tribute to dauntless pioneer women. Northwest of Boise city is the Panhandle – once an outlaws' refuge known as “No Man's land” – you can still see wagon-wheel ruts of the old Santa Fe Trail.

(poster text about Oklahoma)

The state flag of Oklahoma is an Osage warrior shield on a field of blue; the shield is crossed by a peace pipe and an olive branch.

Oklahoma, The Sooner State, Map Art Print

Oklahoma is known as the Sooner State for the nickname given to the early settlers who illegally crossed into the “Unassigned Lands” early in the Oklahoma Land Rush.

• more map posters

Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher, Giclee Print

Oklahoma's state bird is the Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher, also known as the Texas bird-of-paradise and the swallowtailed flycatcher.

It is a long-tailed insectivorous (insect-eating) bird of the (Tyrannus) genus, whose members are collectively referred to as kingbirds.

Native to North and Central America, their breeding habitat is open shrubby environment with scattered trees.

FYI - Tyrannus! think of big, as in dinosaur.

Honey Bee, Apis Mellifera, Photographic Print

The honey bee pollinates more than 90 cultivated crops effecting every third bite of food consumed.

• Oklahoma Dept. of Agriculture - Bee Information

American Bison / Buffalo Poster

The American Buffalo, the state animal of Oklahoma, is the largest terrestrial mammal in North America.

• American Bison Society
• more animal posters

Will Rogers & Sooner State Art Print

Will Rogers
b. 11-4-1879; Indian Territory (Oklahoma)
d. 8-15-1935; airplane crash with Wiley Post at Pt. Barrow, AK

Will Rogers, an American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer and actor, was one of the best-known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s. Rogers was of Cherokee ancestry - he quipped that his ancestors didn't come over on the Mayflower but they “met the boat.”

Will Rogers quote ~
• “I was just thinking, if it is really religion with these nudist colonies, they sure must turn atheists in the wintertime.”
• “If you get to thinking you're a person of some influence, try ordering somebody else's dog around.”

Oklahoma, Masterprint

The title song from the musical Oklahoma!, is the state song. The story is based on native Oklahomian Lynn Riggs' stage play Green Grow the Lilacs.

A Peaceful Little Ranch in Boise City, Oklahoma, Photographic Print

During the Great Depression in the 1930s, the Great Plains suffered major ecological and agricultural damage due to a series of dust storms known as the Dust Bowl.

• Migrant Mother poster
• History of Boise City