Tulsa, OK Summary

photo by kmnorton63

Tulsa is located by the banks of the Arkansas River in the state’s northeast. With 375,000 people and over 700,000 in the metropolitan area, it is the second most populous city in Oklahoma. Tulsa has an active cultural life, reflected in its many galleries and institutions, such as the Tulsa Philharmonic, the Tulsa Opera, the Tulsa Ballet, and the Performing Arts Center.

Tulsa is also a major administrative center of the US petroleum industry, the state’s busiest port, and its principal manufacturing center.

It was the birthplace of country music mega-star Garth Brooks, motion-picture director Blake Edwards, noted US Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and novelist S.E. Hinton.

The land on which Tulsa sits became the site of a Creek village in 1836 after the tribe was removed from its homelands in Tallassee, Alabama, and forced to march to Oklahoma. They named their new village Tallassee but, in time, this evolved into “Tulsa.” According to legend, the 75-foot Creek Council Oak at Cheyenne Avenue and 18th Street became the site of tribal councils.

The Creek culture was overturned by white settlement during the 1889 land rush. By 1900 Tulsa was a small trading center, rail depot, and cattle-shipping center with 1,390 people. After oil was discovered at Red Fork, in 1901, Tulsa became one of the fastest-growing settlements in the United States. Declared a city in 1908, it had a population of 141,000 in 1930, by which time it was known as “the Oil Capital of the World.” The Greenwood Cultural Center celebrates the state’s African-American pioneers. Also here is the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame which honors jazz musicians who were born in Oklahoma (Jimmy Rushing); lived there (Charlie Christian); played in Walter Page’s Blue Devils (Count Basie and Lester Young); or toured the state (Cab Calloway and Dizzy Gillespie). Musicians are inducted into the hall of fame during the African-American June 10th jazz celebrations. At the D & R Western Heritage and Rodeo Ranch, visitors receive an African-American perspective on the American West and history of Oklahoma. The university’s North Conference Center has a photographic exhibit of 44 prominent African-American Tulsans.

Some of Tulsa’s impressive architectural monuments are included in a walking tour, and a leaflet is available from the Chamber of Commerce. They include the Art-Deco Union Railroad Depot and the 255-foot Art-Deco Boston Avenue Methodist Church, which has great views from the 14th floor.

One of Oklahoma’s premier attractions is the Gilcrease Museum, which holds the world’s largest collection of artworks and historical documents associated with the American West. It includes 250,000 Native American artifacts, about 10,000 paintings, and thematic gardens offering fine views of the Osage Hills. The Philbrook Art Center is housed within an opulent Italian Renaissance villa. Inside are paintings dating back to the Renaissance, collections of Chinese art and jade, African sculpture, and Native American artifacts.

One of Tulsa’s more unusual drawing cards is Oral Roberts University, established in 1965 after the Oklahoma televangelist claimed God commanded him to “build me a university.” In 1987 God spoke again, saying that Roberts would not go to heaven unless he could raise $4.5 million. To give his devotees a taste of his absence Roberts retreated to his 200-foot glass Prayer Tower. Fittingly, when the deadline arrived, a lightning bolt struck the tower. Today a heavenly choir provides the aural backdrop to an exhibition, which celebrates Roberts’ life. There is a multimedia presentation of the Bible’s first eight books and an 80-foot pair of hands raised in prayer. More historic religious material is on display at Tulsa’s International Missionary Center, including manuscript bibles from the twelfth century, an original page of the 1452 Gutenberg Bible, a first edition of the 1611 King James Bible, and a full-scale working replica of the Gutenberg press.

Tulsa’s other museums include the Tulsa Air and Space Center, which examines the history and future of aviation and Tulsa’s aerospace pioneers; the Ida Dennie-Willis Museum of Miniatures, Dolls and Toys; Mac’s Antique Car Museum, which includes the 1948 Hudson from the film, Driving Miss Daisy; the Sunbelt Railroad Museum; the Tulsa Historical Society Museum; and the Elsing Museum, which features a collection of rare and beautiful gems, including a 4-foot jade sculpture.

Tulsa is serviced by its own international airport and by buses.