Robert Dorman - It Happened in Oklahoma: Stories of Events and People That Shaped Sooner State History

Robert L. Dorman was born and raised in Oklahoma and graduated with a degree in history from the University of Oklahoma. He holds a Ph.D. in history from Brown University and an M.S.L.S. from the Catholic University of America. Dorman is the author of Revolt of the Provinces: The Regionalist Movement in America, 19201945 (University of North Carolina Press, 1993) and most recently, Alfalfa Bill: A Life in Politics (University of Oklahoma Press, 2018). He is currently monographs librarian and professor of library science at Oklahoma City University.

IT HAPPENED IN

OKLAHOMA

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Dorman, Robert L., author.

Title: It happened in Oklahoma : stories of events and people that shaped Sooner State history / Robert L. Dorman.

Description: Third edition. | Guilford, Connecticut : Globe Pequot, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index. |

Identifiers: LCCN 2019003703 (print) | LCCN 2019004043 (ebook) | ISBN 9781493039111 (ebook) | ISBN 9781493039104 (print)

Subjects: LCSH: OklahomaHistoryAnecdotes.

Classification: LCC F694.6 (ebook) | LCC F694.6 .D67 2019 (print) | DDC 976.6dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019003703

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992

Printed in the United States of America

Oklahoma defies easy labels and preconceptions. It is not especially flat, treeless, or dusty. It is not particularly rural, backwards, or quaint. It has a number of large lakes, none of which is natural. Churchgoing is popular with Oklahomans, and so are gambling and divorce. Famous for its tornadoes, Oklahoma has also become one of the most earthquake-prone areas in the country.

Oklahomas history is surprising and never boring. At least five great historical dramas have happened there: the Trail of Tears, the land runs, the Tulsa Race Riot, the Dust Bowl, and the Oklahoma City bombing. These events transcend time and place in their compelling human interest. Everything else that occurred in between is merely fascinating.

In some ways Oklahomas history is like that of a southern state; in other ways it is more midwestern, and in still other respects, western. Slavery and Civil War battles share the same landscape with sod houses, wheat fields, Indian wars, and cattle drives. Oklahoma history may be shorter than that of some other states, but it is history on fast-forward.

Although admitted to the union as recently as 1907, Oklahoma is not as young as it seems. It possesses a deep and rich Native American history that far predates Columbusand Christ, for that matter. Its modern history began with the Indian removals that occurred in the 1820s and 1830s, culminating with the Trail of Tears. The land runs of the 1890s heralded the end of the Indian republics and the patchwork of reservations that almost seventy different tribes and nations called home. Hundreds of thousands of white settlers poured into Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory, lured by the promise of homesteads and the discovery of oil. When Oklahoma was formed out of the Twin Territories in 1907, it was the fastest-growing state in the nation, larger in population than many established states. In the decades following, Oklahoma underwent a succession of booms and busts, never quite relinquishing the frontier mindset.

After the oil bust of the 1980s, a new maturity seemed to awaken in the state, a greater desire to plan, invest, and build for the long term. Whether this progress can be sustained in a changing world remains an open question. Since 2007, when Oklahoma celebrated its centennial, another oil boom has come and gone, and the Great Recession took its toll. Yet there is no doubt of the determination that generations of Oklahomans have shown or of their capacity to endure. It Happened in Oklahoma tells the story of the big events and the small ones that have made the state what it is today.