Guymon

9781467111812

$24.99

Guymon, the "Queen City" of the Oklahoma Panhandle, has long been the linchpin of Panhandle commerce, education, and entertainment. As a community of over 12,000 residents, it has seen growth--especially in the past two decades--mainly because of a rise in its immigrant population. With a median family income of $46,000, a low unemployment rate, and nearly 900 businesses, many see it as a thriving and prosperous town. Above all, Guymon knows its past and revels in its history of pioneers who settled the area in the late 1880s amid dugouts and cattle ranches and the railroad. Frontier heritage is clearly reflected in Guymon's spirit of independence, friendliness, and irrepressibility. Guymon, a town older than the state of Oklahoma, is proud of its tenacity and will continue to be the mainstay of the Panhandle for years to come.

Muskogee

9781467112680

$24.99

Muskogee was formed in 1872, when the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad (MKT or "the Katy") established a depot on an open plain just a few miles to the south of the confluence of the Arkansas, Grand, and Verdigris Rivers in Indian Territory. A small settlement there soon grew to become the center of political and commercial activity in the territory prior to Oklahoma becoming a state in 1907. Muskogee, once known as the "Queen City of the Southwest," enjoyed major growth after statehood due to oil, cattle, cotton, and the railroads. This book features a diverse collection of Muskogee postcard images that take readers on a trip back in time on a virtual tour of the city.

Cover image for Muskogee, isbn: 9781467112680

Shawnee and Pottawatomie County

9781467125468

$24.99

Restless pioneers surrounded the border of what would become Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, on September 22, 1891, with the goal of staking prime land. The crowd was diverse and not always well-behaved, but chaos eventually turned to order. Businesses opened quickly, and towns were established. Tecumseh would be designated the county seat, but it would not be long before Shawnee would steal it away and even have aspirations of becoming the state capital. Shawnee and Tecumseh would become the focus of the county, but other towns like Asher, Dale, Earlsboro, Macomb, Maud, McLoud, St. Louis, and Wanette persevered in their own ways, bringing a unique version of small-town charm. Pottawatomie County today is home to just over 70,000 citizens. Shawnee, still the county seat, boasts a prestigious college and university and is known as the birthplace of Sonic Drive-In. Sixteen sites listed in the National Register of Historic Places are in the county. Jim Thorpe, Gordon Cooper Jr., Wanda Jackson, and Brad Pitt have all called Pottawatomie County home.

Norman

9781467110488

$24.99

On April 22, 1889, the federal government opened the unassigned lands in central Oklahoma for settlement. Entrepreneurs, cattlemen, and farmers, all seeking new opportunities, anxiously staked their claim to town lots and 160-acre homesteads. From their tents on Norman's Main Street, businessmen started to sell their wares. Tents soon gave way to wooden shacks and, finally, two-story brick buildings. By the beginning of the 20th century, Norman was a bustling frontier town that quickly matured into a trade center, a county seat, and a university town. In the 1940s, Norman became the home of the Naval Air Technical Training Center, a naval base constructed to train navy pilots and ground support crews for World War II.

Cherokee Strip Land Rush

9780738540740

$24.99

On September 16, 1893, over 100,000 people converged on the edges of six million acres just south of the Kansas border, a parcel officially designated the Cherokee Outlet but more commonly called the Cherokee Strip. This was the largest of the rushes, where officials threw open whole parcels of land at one time. The opening of the outlet drew people with a wide mix of motivations. Those who arrived that stifling September found heat, dust, wretched conditions, high prices--and hope. Among them was William Prettyman, whose photographs remain the most stirring record of the event. When the starting gun went off at noon, the blurred images of people and animals racing across the dusty terrain became part of the memory of a whole region.

Oklahoma City's Midtown

9780738594378

$24.99

The story of Oklahoma City would be incomplete without its suburban Midtown, a work-and-play community nearly as old as the city itself. Located along the northern edge of downtown, Midtown has become a surging community of diverse neighborhoods, businesses, and dynamic revitalization efforts within its nearly 387 acres. Among this area's unique attractions are Oklahoma's first hospital, grocery store, and kindergarten, as well as surviving territorial Victorian homes and so much more. These pages contain numerous images--published for the first time--that capture the moments and people from the Midtown community that shaped downtown Oklahoma City. From the first land rush in 1889 to innovations that would change medicine worldwide, this is the story of Oklahoma City's Midtown.

Bartlesville, Oklahoma

9780738503103

$24.99

From the 1890s through the 1920s, the postcard was an extraordinarily popular means of communication, and many of the postcards produced during this "golden age" can today be considered works of art. Postcard photographers traveled the length and breadth of the nation snapping photographs of busy street scenes, documenting local landmarks, and assembling crowds of local children only too happy to pose for a picture. These images, printed as postcards and sold in general stores across the country, survive as telling reminders of an important era in America's history. This fascinating new history of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, showcases more than two hundred of the best vintage postcards available.

Pawnee County

9781467114714

$24.99

Pawnee County is unique among Oklahoma's counties. It represents a microcosm of the state's culture and heritage. Like Oklahoma, Pawnee County is divided in half by the cross timbers: to the east are woodlands and lakes, and to the west are the short grass country and the Great Plains. The eastern half of the county was a part of old Oklahoma Territory and is filled with lake homes that serve as a bedroom community for Tulsa, while the legacy of the Wild West lives in western Pawnee County, home of the Pawnee Bill Memorial Rodeo. A vibrant agriculture and cattle economy made the county an economic center of the Oklahoma Territory. Then came oil and a rush of fortune seekers. Thousands of wells produced millions of dollars in black gold, as tens of thousands of oilmen rushed to the region, along with gamblers, con men, prostitutes, bootleggers, and other ne'er-do-wells. From this colorful legacy, modern Pawnee County emerged.

Pontotoc County

9780738590547

$24.99

Pontotoc County, located in South Central Oklahoma, is one of the smaller counties in the state. The word pontotoc roughly translates to a Native American phrase meaning "cattails growing on the prairie." Dotted with many communities, some booming and others slowly disappearing, Pontotoc County is rich with history. This county was the epitome of the Old West at its most raw and dangerous. Pontotoc's lowest moment came on April 19, 1909, when a band of unknown Ada citizens made one of the most infamous decisions in American history and hanged four men without a trial. The modern consensus is that Ada, the county seat, became the horizon on which the sunset of the Old West was witnessed. Today, Pontotoc County is home to the Robert S. Kerr Environmental Research Center, the corporate headquarters of Pre-Paid Legal Services, Holcim Inc., Tornado Alley Turbo, and the Chickasaw Nation Headquarters. This thriving county has much to offer--not only to the United States, but also to the world.

Beaver County

9780738583501

$24.99

Beaver County's unique history is reflected in the five flags that once flew as claim to the area, as well as in the fact that for 70 years the land between the 100th and 103rd meridians and between 36?30' and the 37th parallels belonged to no territory, state, or nation--hence the name "No Man's Land." Spanish explorer Francisco Vásquez de Coronado traveled through the west central part of the area on his return to Mexico from his hunt for the Seven Cities of Cibola. Later ranchers, cattle, and freight trails brought permanent settlements. In 1903, homesteaders, sometimes called "punkin rollers," began to stake claims, build sod houses, and become permanent residents long before there was any law and order, since no government existed.

Claremore

9780738550565

$24.99

Throughout the years, a city's history has a way of disappearing along with a way of life that will most likely never be seen again. The reader will be offered a rare glimpse into the very heart of Claremore's vibrant past. Claremore is truly brimming with history, from the radium baths to the Frisco Railroad to the town's famous residents, including Clem Rogers, father of the widely loved entertainer and advocate for Oklahoma statehood in 1907. This collection of vintage postcards contains views from the town beginning at prestatehood, when Claremore was considered part of Indian Territory. Each postcard sends the reader on a journey through time from an era full of freedom and spirit to "getting your kicks on Route 66."

Sapulpa

9781467125598

$24.99

Sapulpa is named after a young Creek Indian who came to the area around 1840 and opened a trading post near Pole Cat Creek. Sapulpa's arrival in Indian Territory was independent of the famed "Trail of Tears," a term used for the federal government's forced removal of Creek (Muskogee) and other tribes from their southern homelands in the 1830s. The area that would become the Creek Nation is a small part of the land acquired by the United States after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. At one time, Spain, England, and France each laid claim to Oklahoma. Trails, rails, and oil; bricks, clay, and glass; and streetcars, highways, and automobiles are all parts of the historic community of Sapulpa. The diverse people who came to the area--Indians, cowboys, railroaders, settlers, loggers, farmers, wildcatters, oilmen, businessmen, manufacturers, workers, and dreamers--recorded the town's story, as captured in photographs, beginning more than a century ago. Sapulpa was and remains a crossroads in more ways than one.

Texas County

9780738590950

$24.99

Although there is evidence that prehistoric people lived in the area, Texas County did not officially exist until the area comprising No Man's Land, the Neutral Strip, and later Cimarron Territory was tacked onto Oklahoma at statehood in 1907. For the 70 years prior, the area belonged to no state or nation, and for 70 years it was a haven for those who chose not to abide by the law, as well as some good folks who established ranches and small villages. The area drastically changed with the arrival of railroads at the beginning of the 20th century, causing the creation of new towns and the influx of homesteaders who created a whole new culture. From these humble beginnings, the area has grown to become a leader in gas production and hog farms, as well as a home for prosperous ranches and a packing plant.

Early Woods County

9780738583105

$24.99

Woods County, Oklahoma, is showcased in images dating from 1894 to statehood in 1907. This time span covers the period of early settlement and the hardships of pioneers in a new territory. It includes the growth from a wide-open prairie to the beginnings of small towns and school districts, from mostly one-room schoolhouses to the Normal School for higher education, known today as Northwestern Oklahoma State University. People from all walks of life came to the Cherokee Outlet before the land run of 1893 and after. Those frontier inhabitants suddenly found themselves nearly alone on the wide expanse of prairie unbroken by a single building and with almost no trees. Early settlers came from across the country and even from across the ocean, many with nothing but the clothes on their backs and hope. These new residents carved out a living and made Woods County what it is today.