49 Facts About Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City is on the I-35 Corridor, one of the primary travel corridors south into neighboring Texas and Mexico and north towards Wichita and Kansas City.

Since weather records have been kept beginning in 1890, Oklahoma City has been struck by 13 violent tornadoes, 11 of which were rated F4 or EF4 on the Fujita and Enhanced Fujita scales, and one each rated F5 and EF5.

Oklahoma City was settled on April 22, 1889, when the area known as the "Unassigned Lands" was opened for settlement in an event known as "The Land Run".

Oklahoma City was a major stop on Route 66 during the early part of the 20th century; it was prominently mentioned in Bobby Troup's 1946 jazz song Route 66" made famous by artist Nat King Cole.

Residents of Oklahoma City suffered substantial losses on April 19, 1995, when Timothy McVeigh detonated a bomb in front of the Murrah building.

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Oklahoma City lies along one of the primary corridors into Texas and Mexico, and is a three-hour drive from the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.

Population density normally reported for Oklahoma City using the area of its city limits can be misleading.

Oklahoma City is one of the largest cities in the nation in compliance with the Clean Air Act.

Oklahoma City neighborhoods are extremely varied, with affluent historic neighborhoods located next to districts that have not wholly recovered from economic and social decline of the 1970s and 1980s.

South Oklahoma City is generally more blue collar working class and significantly more industrial, having grown up around the Stockyards and meat packing plants at the turn of the century, and is the center of the city's rapidly growing Latino community.

Downtown Oklahoma City, which has 7, 600 residents, is seeing an influx of new private investment and large scale public works projects, which have helped to resuscitate a central business district left almost deserted by the Oil Bust of the early 1980s.

Oklahoma City has a temperate humid subtropical climate, along with significant continental influences.

On May 3, 1999, parts of Oklahoma City and surrounding communities were impacted by a tornado.

Across Oklahoma City and Texas generally, there was a record flooding in the latter part of the month.

Oklahoma City has experienced significant population increases since the late 1990s.

Oklahoma City is the principal city of the eight-county Oklahoma City Metropolitan Statistical Area in Central Oklahoma and is the state's largest urbanized area.

Law enforcement claims Oklahoma City has traditionally been the territory of the notorious Juarez Cartel, but the Sinaloa Cartel has been reported as trying to establish a foothold in Oklahoma City.

Oklahoma City has its share of violent crimes, particularly in the 1970s.

However, during the early 1980s, Oklahoma City had one of the worst job and housing markets due to the bankruptcy of Penn Square Bank in 1982 and then the post-1985 crash in oil prices.

Oklahoma City has three business improvement districts, including one encompassing the central business district.

Oklahoma City is home to several professional sports teams, including the Oklahoma City Thunder of the National Basketball Association.

Oklahoma City is the annual host of the Big 12 Baseball Tournament, the World Cup of Softball, and the annual NCAA Women's College World Series.

In 2012, Oklahoma City made it to the NBA Finals, but lost to the Miami Heat in five games.

In 2014 Oklahoma City again reached the NBA's Western Conference Finals but eventually lost to the San Antonio Spurs in six games.

Oklahoma City Thunder has been regarded by sports analysts as one of the elite franchises of the NBA's Western Conference and that of a media darling as the future of the league.

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Oklahoma City earned Northwest Division titles every year from 2011 to 2014, and again in 2016, and has consistently improved its win record to 59-wins in 2014.

Oklahoma City has two amusement parks, Six Flags Frontier City theme park and Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Oklahoma City water park.

Oklahoma City has a major park in each quadrant of the city, going back to the first parks masterplan.

Oklahoma City is home to the American Banjo Museum, which houses a large collection of highly decorated banjos from the early 20th century and exhibits on the history of the banjo and its place in American history.

City of Oklahoma City has operated under a council-manager form of city government since 1927.

The Oklahoma City Council appointed current Oklahoma City Manager Craig Freeman on November 20, 2018.

Similar to many American cities, Oklahoma City is politically conservative in its suburbs, and liberal in the central city.

University of Oklahoma has several institutions of higher learning in the city and metropolitan area, with OU Medicine and the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center campuses east of downtown in the Oklahoma Health Center district, and the main campus to the south in the suburb of Norman.

Oklahoma City is home to the state's largest school district, Oklahoma City Public Schools.

KIPP Reach College Preparatory School in Oklahoma City received the 2012 National Blue Ribbon along with its school leader, Tracy McDaniel Sr.

Two prominent schools of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City include Bishop McGuinness High School and Mount Saint Mary High School.

Oklahoma City has several public career and technology education schools associated with the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education, the largest of which are Metro Technology Center and Francis Tuttle Technology Center.

Private career and technology education schools in Oklahoma City include Oklahoma Technology Institute, Platt College, Vatterott College, and Heritage College.

The Dale Rogers Training Center in Oklahoma City is a nonprofit vocational training center for individuals with disabilities.

Oklahoma City was home to several pioneers in radio and television broadcasting.

Gaylord's Oklahoma Publishing Company and affiliated with the NBC Red Network; in 1949, WKY-TV went on the air and later became the first independently owned television station in the U S to broadcast in color.

Oklahoma City is one of the few markets between Chicago and Dallas to have affiliates of two or more of the major Spanish-language broadcast networks: Telemundo affiliate KTUZ-TV, Woodward-based Univision affiliate KUOK 35 (whose translator KUOK-CD, channel 36, serves the immediate Oklahoma City area), Azteca affiliate KOHC-CD (channel 45) and Estrella TV affiliate KOCY-LD (channel 48).

Oklahoma City is protected by the Oklahoma City Fire Department, which employs 1015 paid, professional firefighters.

Oklahoma City is an integral point on the United States Interstate Network, with three major interstate highways – Interstate 35, Interstate 40, and Interstate 44 – bisecting the city.

Oklahoma City has several major national and state highways within its city limits.

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Oklahoma City is served by two primary airports, Will Rogers World Airport and the much smaller Wiley Post Airport Will Rogers World Airport is the state's busiest commercial airport, with 4, 341, 159 passengers served in 2018, a historic record.

Tinker Air Force Base, in southeast Oklahoma City, is the largest military air depot in the nation; a major maintenance and deployment facility for the Navy and the Air Force, and the second largest military institution in the state.

Oklahoma City once was the crossroads of several interstate passenger railroads, at the Santa Fe Depot, the Union Station, and at the station of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad.

Oklahoma City has 18 neighborhoods with a Walk Score above 60, mainly close to the downtown core.