|
Often ridiculed by the rest of the country as dust-filled and boring,
OKLAHOMA has had a traumatic and far from dull history. In the 1830s
all this land, held to be useless, was set aside as Indian Territory
; a convenient dumping ground for the so-called Five Civilized Tribes
who blocked white settlement in the southern states. The Choctaw
and Chickasaw of Mississippi, the Seminole of Florida, and the Creek
of Alabama were each assigned a share, while the rest (though already
inhabited by indigenous Indians) was given to the Cherokee from
Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia, who followed in 1838 on the four-month
trek notorious as "the Trail of Tears". Today the state
has a large Native American population - oklahoma is the Choctaw
word for "red man" - and even the smallest towns tend
to have museums of Native American history.
Once white settlers realized that Indian Territory was, in fact,
well worth farming, they decided to stay. The Indians were relocated
once more, and in a series of manic free-for-all scrambles starting
in 1889, entire towns sprang up literally overnight. Those who jumped
the gun and claimed land illegally were known as Sooners; hence
Oklahoma's nickname, the Sooner State . White settlers didn't have
an easy life, however, facing, after great oil prosperity in the
1920s, an era of unthinkable hardship in the 1930s. The desperate
migration, when whole communities fled the dust bowl for California,
has come to encapsulate the worst horrors of the Depression, most
famously in John Steinbeck's novel (and John Ford's film) The Grapes
of Wrath , but also in Dorothea Lange's haunting photos of itinerant
families, hitching and camping on the road, and in the sad yet hopeful
songs of Woody Guthrie. After the slump of the early Thirties, improved
farming techniques brought life, and people, back to Oklahoma. Today
the state is known for its staunch conservatism; as the Bible Belt
stronghold, bars and liquor stores close early, while tattoo parlors
are banned altogether.
Oklahoma is not the flat and unchanging expanse of popular imagination.
Most of its places of interest, such as attractive Tulsa, lie in
the hilly wooded northeast; only the sparse and treeless west is
devoid of appeal, on the far side of the central "tornado alley"
prairie grassland which holds the state's revitalized capital, Oklahoma
City . The lakes and parks of the south, which bears more than a
passing resemblance to neighboring Arkansas (complete with mountains,
foliage and bluegrass music), have made tourism Oklahoma's second
industry after oil.
Car travel is the only way to explore Oklahoma. Amtrak serves Oklahoma
City with one train a day from Fort Worth, Texas. Greyhound buses
speed along I-35 and I-40, which converge on Oklahoma City, but
public transportation within the towns is minimal. Tulsa and Oklahoma
City have airports. Route 66 , which passes through both cities
on its way from Missouri to Texas, is no longer a national highway,
but if you have plenty of time (and sturdy tires; much of the road
is in a bad way), makes a nostalgic alternative to the interstates.
Travel literature detailing the small communities and ghost towns
on the way is plentiful at roadside information centers or contact
the Oklahoma Route 66 Association (tel 405/258-0008, ).
See what Oklahoma car rentals has to offer today. Choose a link
above to view today's special Oklahoma rental car rates from different
agencies! Click here to get started with a car
rental quote now!
|
