In the video I mentioned that American Airlines has its maintenance hub in Oklahoma City. I was mistaken. It is actually in Tulsa. Sorry for any confusion.
As a native Texan, I often travel to or through Oklahoma, usually on Interstates 35 and 40. I've always had pleasant times in OK. I like Oklahoma a lot, except during the Sooners/Longhorns games...just kidding. OK and TX share a lot culturally. I consider Oklahoma to be a very good neighbor to Texas. Some of the comments on here expressed hatred toward Texas. That's rather concerning.
As much grief as I like to give Texas, it's a state I enjoy. I admire its economic might too. I have family in the DFW metroplex, and wouldn't mind living in certain areas.
@@rooteddwellings Most of the Oklahoma-Texas border is separated by the Red River. As crazy as things are getting in this country now, I think it is wise that OK and TX support each other. We may be two separate states, but we share a similar culture.
i live in texas and a few weeks ago i drove to fort smith arkansas. had to drive through south eastern oklahoma and it was beautiful, really memorable road trip
Oklahoma really is underrated! There are some really nice parts of it, but there are also some not very good parts. And I believe the Fried Okra is from here.
OKC now has 681k+ people and ranks as the 22nd most populated city. It's the 6th fastest growing city out of the top 25 largest cities. There's a lot of development happening in okc. The First Americans Museum is definitely worth a visit. I don't live in OK anymore, but with all the new improvements I just might come back.
OK is my favorite state, coming from a non-American who's seen quite a lot of the contiguous U.S.. You have every reason to be proud of your state and I will defend and endorse it whenever I get the chance. Greetings from the Netherlands.
It's a great state. I loved my stake at Cattlemen's and Cowboy Heritage Museum is one of my favorite museums in the country. I'm surprised neither was mentioned!
@@vanderzwam I understand your comment was a year ago. However, why is Oklahoma your favorite state? I am really curious, all I hear is people talking bad about it. "Don't go to Oklahoma because of their tornados and its flat out boring there too!" Thats the only 2 things I hear about, people really think we get tornados like everyday. Oklahoma is not as bad as people make it seem. Most of the people complaining about Oklahoma probably never even been here before. Many good places to eat at like Braum's are awesome, there ice cream is the best! Texas Roadhouse rolls with the cinnamon butter is delicious, I always end up getting full before my food comes.
Oklahoma culturally is like a cross between the Southwest with the Midwest of America except the Southeastern part of the state which is very Dixie/Southern.
I've always said that Oklahoma is part southern and part midwest. Even in the small OK town I grew up in I could tell that we have some midwest influence.
Eh I'd disagree. I spent the first few years of my life in SE OK (Broken Bow) and it's basically Arkansas. But really grew up in Central OK. I now live in the upper Midwest. North OK is probably closer to MO/KS. Much of southern OK is Dixie. Central OK (not okc) isn't midwestern at all. We're a little of everything honestly. A bit SW, Cowboy, Dixie, and Ozarks. I've never understood the comparison between OK and the midwest. OK is unique and created a distinct culture that can't really be pinned down.
I wasn’t born in Oklahoma because my parents moved out before I was born but all my family lives there and I even moved there for a year with overall probably been in the state for two years time and it’s so underrated
A great influence in rock he didn't mention was Tulsa's Leon Russell, considered to be one of the best piano players by many of the great rock legends.
I got to spend a few days in Oklahoma on our southwest road trip last month, and I really fell in love with the state. First off, those Onion Burgers at Tucker's in downtown OKC are worth the trip alone. Delicious. We stayed in Shawnee, just southeast of OKC, and made the hour drive down to Chickasaw National Recreation Area in Sulphur. I highly recommend this place to anyone who loves nature and outdoor activity- its some of the best hiking I've done. The park straddles the line between East and West geological zones. One trial we hiked started out forested and hilly and ended with prairie grasses and prickly pear cacti. Pretty neat 👌
I lived in Weatherford for a little over a year. When I first moved, it was during a 3 week 100 degree + streak, but it was definitely bitterly cold in the winter. Especially when you factor in the wind chill!
This was amazing. Thank you sir. Oklahoma is my fourth favorite state in America. My dad is from Tulsa. So my brothers and I would spend our summers there in our teens years. I can't wait for New Mexico next. A state i was born and raised. Also my first favorite state.
underappreciated for sure, s/o Tulsa... it is much better than you'd think ask anyone who lives here. There is some pride associated with this city and the state in general.
Lots going for Tulsa. A beautiful city nestled on the edge of the eastern foothills. Great parks all along the Arkansas River, tremendous museums, good music, art, and poetry scenes.
Well no Tulsa kinda sucks. But the Tulsa area is pretty nice place. Which I think is kinda hard for many that are not from this part of the country to understand that "cities" are much much larger than the city proper.
One thing you may not have noticed is the logging industry in Oklahoma. At the time it was built, the paper mill in Valliant, Oklahoma was the biggest in the world. It still can receive up to 400 truck loads of wood per day. And that's just that mill. There are several saw mills down there. Of course, this is mainly the southeastern part of that state, but you can find loggers all the way up to Missouri on the east side of Oklahoma.
I've lived in Oklahoma most of my life. Lived in Kay County(extreme north central) for most of my childhood and have now lived in the Muskogee area for almost 20 years. I agree with most of your assessment, however I think it should be noted that Oklahoma honestly has several different climates and is very geographically diverse. It honestly feels like your in a different state in some cases. The western part of the state is dry and has low population density and had a fairly high average elevation. The central and northern area is very flat and mainly plains. The south eastern part is pretty forested and lots of hills and pretty humid with mild winters. The north eastern part is called green county. The reason for this is because the amount of rivers and lakes and the amount of rainfall and trees. The extreme east/northeast is in the outskirts of the Ozarks. I also disagree with your assessment of Tulsa. It has a nice downtown, fairly decent art and theatre scene. Lots of live music, pretty decent night life, 2 major casinos, a beautiful zoo, one of the biggest parks I've ever seen in The Gathering Place. It's also very affordable, has some very nice neighborhoods, and plenty of outdoor activities nearby, also the Arkansas River goes right through the city and there is a nice running and biking trails along the river. It also has some very nice and growing suburbs. It's not overly crowded and just overall a really great city.
I agree. Also, isn't Leon Russell from Tulsa, and Ronny Brooks from Brooks and Dunn. Didn't mention the navigation of the Arkansas River with Tulsa. It is also one of the largest, farthest inland river ports in the United States. Don't forget eastern Oklahoma also has the WORLDS HIGHEST HILL in Poteau with Cavanal (that's where I'm from). As far as food, I can't believe he didn't mention Indian Tacos, no state fair would be complete without it.
I know you can't include everything due to time constraints, but I feel that the drive to the top of Mt. Scott in the Wichita Mountains near Lawton should have been a highlight. A road was built to the top and parking lot is 2500 feet above the plain. Meers Store is in the Wichita's. I grew up in that area of the state and it has a varied geography that makes it unique.
I visited Mt Scott many times in my 20s 30 years ago when I lived in Lawton Oklahoma. That whole area where Mount Scott is located is very beautiful. Be careful you may see a tarantula.
Oklahoma is really such a geographically diverse state. It commonly gets a bad rap, usually by those who have either never visited, or haven't spent much time there, but there is something for just about everyone there. And yes, I may be biased, but OU is a great university and Norman is a great town!
I think you need someone to show you a good time in Tulsa.. property values are surpassing OKC, because of the Gathering Place, proximity to nature (river, lakes, hiking), BOK has best music concerts in the state now, and it’s overall prettier/cleaner with better suburbs. And that’s coming from someone who lives in OKC now :-)
Tulsa, in the early 70's, was red hot on the rock music scene. Eric Clapton actually lived there for awhile because so much was going on. There were several very highly regarded session musicians from Tulsa. One of the great spectacles of nature was when at the end of a hot Summer the first cold front of Fall could come though and you could see it coming for 75 miles. By the way, Norman is bigger than Lawton, by about 30,000, population of Norman is 125,000 or so.
I enjoyed your take on the state in some ways. Tulsa is the cultural center of Oklahoma with two top 50 art museums in Philbrook and Gilcrease. Top 5 ballet. When Elon Musk was trying to decide between Tulsa and Austin for his cyber truck plant. He compared everything including nightlife. Austin came in at #2 nationally, of course, for its vibrant music scene, but what people don’t know is Tulsa was #9 in this category with a great live music scene. Not Austin but very good. Eric Clapton spent time in Tulsa as during the ‘70’s and early ‘80’s his entire band were Tulsans and loved The Tulsa Sound. Why he played “Tulsa Time” in many of his concerts. Austin won the factory as expected but Oklahoma is not all country music, a good bit, but some great other non country bands also. OKC and Tulsa are very different cities for sure. I prefer Tulsa but OKC has made great improvements.
Tulsa punches above its weight but it's no comparison to OKC on the national/world scale. Tulsan's like to think it's the cultural center of the state but tourists/reality says otherwise. Again, Tulsa has punched above it's weight (but with it's metro area now at 1m that fact is starting to fade) - but its not a cultural center just due to 2 art museums or the city's support of the performing arts. OKC has those as well, and more of them - so it would be there and Tulsa would be "a" cultural center.
Thank you for your great video production. I have been full time living in my RV for over 5 years, all across our country. Your presentation and personality is right up my alley. I am in HOOKER OK. As I write. Thanks again.
Based on population alone, it is incredible how many prominent musicians came from Oklahoma. One major rock band that was left off the list is Kings of Leon!
Kyle, love these style of videos. This one was great. I worked on Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma for 5 years and just recently moved away. most everything you said is pretty spot on. Not being from this state, what surprised me the most was the amount of snow/ice in the winters and the onion burgers joint around the state as well. Can't say that were that bad tho lol
An outsider writing about MY STATE and says Tulsa doesn't have a music scene? Has all the negatives and none of the positives. ARE YOU KIDDING? I don't live in Tulsa, but TULSA HAS A TREMENDOUS Music scene. Every working musician knows Tulsa or has played there. It has a HUGE ROCK SCENE. The Old Lady on Brady...FAMOUS PLACE that all musicians want to play, as well as The Cain's Ballroom. Hank Williams and the Texas Playboys made it famous. I used to play in a blues band and we played Tulsa. JJ Cale is from Tulsa, he wrote a song for Lynyrd Skynyrd of which..Steve and Cassie Gaines were in Skynyrd, died in the plane crash but were from Miami Oklahoma. My mom went to school with them. Have the yearbook to prove that. FAMOUS LEON RUSSELL is from Oklahoma. He played the Old Lady on Brady Every yr. on his Bday. April 1st or 2nd..lol, I forget off the top of my head. I even have a few concert tee's and still see his picture with his age on it but was it 51st bday concert? Idk..anyway you don't know jack about Oklahoma. Even less about Tulsa! Oil was first struck in Tulsa! It has a rich history. Rt. 66 runs thru Tulsa, and I live on rt. 66. OMG...I don't know all the state financial crap tho, but I know we have tons of Casino's and Resorts and the most natural lakes of any state. I went to college here, studied Forestry and Wildlife Conservation. I've traveled the entire state many many many times and keep doing so. The Eastern Half is my fav. but I like going out to the Osage Tallgrass Prairie and see the Buffalo, hike the trails etc. We have mountain lions or cougars, bobcats,deer, and all your normal critters. There is more than Tinker AFB, there's also Altus Air force Base as well. And I could keep going. I mean you did a good job, but a native okie would have done better. Sorry.
The rock group Hinder also came from oklahoma. and you missed out in the Red Dirt music scene. it’s huge and bands like Turnpike Troubadours are folk legends around here
Artist Harold Stevenson was from Oklahoma. He was an associate of Andy Warhol in New York, and appeared in a couple of his movies. He had huge art shows in New York and Paris, and one of his paintings even hung from the Eiffel Tower, until it caused a traffic jam and the city had to take it down.
Never been to Oklahoma. I was told that all I need to know about Oklahoma is, they have 2 seasons. Hot as Hell, and Cold as Hell, and the wind blows all the time.
As a well travelled Oklahoman I can say it gets fairly chilly but not that cold. About 5 degrees in the winter with occasional detours slightly below freezing. The summers do get hit as hell though, averaging in the 80s with it commonly going 95 and over.
Yea, speaking of hot. A heat wave hit and now we are going to be in the 90-100+ for about 2 weeks, with no rain and hardly any clouds. Stay outside to long and you will get a heat stroke.
In Tulsa, Spring is beautiful as is Fall, but Summer and Winter can be extreme for sure. One winter when I lived there, it was 65 degrees and sunny. Woke up next morning, 21 degrees with 6” of snow on the ground so I’d say that’s extreme but keeps it exciting.
I didn't know smoked bologna wasn't common, it's just part of BBQ here along with brisket, pulled pork, etc. I don't like bologna but smoked it is great!
Oklahoma not only has a small part of the Ouchita Mountains. A little bit of the Ozark Mountains is in Oklahoma too. Pretty areas. My grandmother was born on Cow Skin Prairie in 1887, while Oklahoma was still Indian Territory.
I love these videos! I would love to see you explore contemporary Indigenous countries ("countries" being defined like we do Kurdistan, Basque Country and Tibet, for entities like Inuit Nunangat, Mi'kma'ki and Diné Bikéyah)
It's interesting that you said that Tulsa is less interesting than OKC, I think a lot of people in the state would disagree with you lol also I've never heard of smoked bologna, weird. And the Witchita Mountains in the Southwest are worth a mention as well.
@@joshs6535 I currently live in the OKC metro area, but I am from Tulsa and I can personally say that Tulsa is more interesting to me because the geography there is more diverse. The museums, the world-class park called Gathering Place, Arkansas River, art-deco skyline, and the Osage Hills to the north. And let's not forget the hippy stuff in downtown that just sprang up in the past 10 years, Tulsa has been remodeling a lot of it's urban areas lately.
@@JustinCastleberry117 Tulsa is intersting for a small city, but it is not a medium sized national city like OKC. Theres great things in Tulsa but its not on the national scale like the things in OKC. Tulsa does support the performing arts and has 2 great art museums, but OKC does too. OKC may not be as interesting to Tulsans because OKC doesn't brag about what it has like Tulsa overwhelmingly does. And Tulsans must admit that the current city scape is a direct result of 'competition' with OKC (not that its wrong, but does indicate who is the leader - OKC). Again, Tulsa has punched above its weight but it really can't compete with cities like OKC metro that have been over 1M for more than 30 years. ...
If you find yourself going south out of Salisaw, stop in at Wild Horse Mountain Bar-B-Que, its great stuff. (BTW, grew up there, and love the area around the Kiamichi mountains.)
I really appreciated the fair review of Oklahoma; it truly is a rarity to hear someone not from here say nice things about the state without dragging in a bunch of negatives. I think Oklahoma would be a really good state to do a whole series on, taking a look at the individual regions of the state--I really don't know that any states except California and Texas can beat us out for regional variety.
Southeastern part of the State is the best part, I know that because I live there lol, also Chicken Fried Steak is amazing no matter where it came from, OKLAHOMA ;), and yeah Texas is not very popular up here lol.
@@NebulousCrafter I live in SE part of the State, we have a lot of water here but not enough for OKC and Dallas. Texas needs for sure find a source of water within their borders not take from Oklahoma and or Arkansas.
You need to come back & visit Tulsa. You missed a lot of information, especially the music sound. There’s something called Tulsa Sound. Many great musicians, not the least Leon Russell who was a musical genius. We have a lot of new things going on & it’s growing fast. Especially downtown.
The earthquakes in Oklahoma were never very powerful. The state restricted wastewater injection starting in 2015 and earthquakes are not much of an issue any longer.
I noticed the change. I only felt one earthquake, and being from Oklahoma, my first reaction to rumbling was thinking a tornado was on top of us. It was weird.
As I clicked on your video and started to watch it, I said to myself, "Oh no - not THAT guy again! The last video of yours that I watched was where you were waxing poetic and ecstatic about New Mexico, claiming that it was your favorite state. Although you included a lot of diverse information in this video, it seems like, when it comes to geography, strictly speaking, you left quite a few things out - namely other mountain ranges like the Wichita Mountains, the Oachita Mountains, the Ozarks, as well as whe wierd sand dunes that are also in the state.
The earthquake thing is a little overblown. The vast majority are magnitude 2. And the Richter scale is logarithmic. So for instance a magnitude 7 has 100,000 times more energy than a magnitude 2. So while the materials aren’t great for earthquakes they won’t need to be.
I grew up in Oklahoma, it’s actually not a bad place, if you live in one of the top three or four major towns. If you draw the state completely into four sections down the middle and cross, each section of the state has a totally different terrain and weather. From about Norman north, the weather can get really icy and cold in late January and February. People are all friendly, it’s a clean state, things are a bit slower there education is not bad. Lots of small towns!
I may be late to the party, but I love your site! Great content that is presented factual with great side perspectives. You were pretty fair to Missouri and Oklahoma. Thank you!
It’s a strange state. The eastern part is southern, the mid part especially north central is Midwest, and the western part is definitely western high plains w Buffalo. But the western part is almost 5 times higher in elevation than the eastern.
Glad to see you corrected the American Airlines error, but for a "geography king", I was surprised to see Black Mesa called out as the highest "peak" in Oklahoma! Common definition of "peak" is from base to summit, so Black Mesa is not. That title belongs to Mount Scott in the Wichita Mountains just outside Lawton, in the southwest. Black Mesa is the highest 'elevation' due to the gradual lowering of overall elevation from NW to SE.
Tinker Air Force Base also hosts a US Navy squadron, the Navy E-6 TACAMO planes are based there. The US Coast Guard has a primary training school in Oklahoma City, yeah go figure that one out.
Thanks, Kyle...Your vids are very innaresting. But, unfortunately, in this OK piece You failed to mention the biggest "star" of the musical field. Of course, I'm talking about the one and only: J.J. Cale! Writer and also performer of "evergreens" of rock'n'roll such as "Call Me the Breeze", "Magnolia", "Crazy Mama", "After Midnight", "I Got the Same Old Blues", "Cocaine" etc. I think there's even a song called "J.J. Cale's Still the King"!
When it comes to rockers coming out of Oklahoma , how could u forget one of the most influential rockers JJ Cale from Tulsa,OK ? If you’re not familiar with his music , you’re missing out . He’s the original writer of “They call me the breeze “ and “Cocaine “ .
Right now we are undergoing, a heat wave that hit last week, here in Oklahoma. Its suppose to be in the 90-100+ for about 2 weeks with no rain. Which is strange because that same week we got months worth of rain within 2 days and that caused flooding. However, that was when the heat wave hit, all under a week. I'm glad you did a video about Oklahoma! People tend to think that all we have are tornados, there are a few beautiful places here. Many museums here and small parks to be at, all the lakes here are manmade.
Man, I didn't know what to think of your vid or the State since I'm several states to the north and considering a move. Your personality reminds me of cousin Eddie from Lampoon's vacation doing an informed and concise overview of it, with a few idiosyncratic jabs here and there,lol.
How long has it been since you visited Tulsa? Prior to Covid, Tulsa had about as much nightlife as you could ask for a city of its size. Live music, bars, nightclubs, restaurants, breweries, art museums...all located in or around downtown. But what you should look up is The Gathering Place, a fairly new park along the river that when finished will cover over 100 acres. It’s beautiful and has activities for everyone to enjoy.
I suspect the OP may have been wrongfully comparing Tulsa to OKC, which would leave that opinion of Tulsa being underwhelming. Tulsa just joined the 1 million metro club, so again - his argument may be fitting. OKC has been the largest city forever and started acting like it 35 years ago. There's no comparison that OKC is more interesting to those not living in Tulsa (who have a LOT of pride in their city), just by the fact of being larger and more metropolitan/stuff in the city/metro.
My grandparents escaped the Oklahoma Dust Bowl and resettled in the Central Valley of California. I have long wondered “what really happened?” What might Geography King have to say about the creation of the Dust Bowl?
I'll have do negate your music evaluation(I say this as a Will Rogers Alum). There's the Tulsa Sound with prominent musicians like Leon Russel, JJ Cale and the like all being involved. Just thought I'd say
We can get into the negatives with a foot of snow in the winter and over 110⁰F with high humidity in the summer. There are natural fault lines in the state but the fracking and drilling made it worse.
US HWY 64 crosses just past the NW corner of the TX panhandle, while remaining in NM. It's kinda cool to drive along, you stay in NM but can peer into a large swath of TX. Very near the OK panhandle border with NM.
In southern central OK we get a month or more of fall. Not saying it's contiguous. This year's fall was abruptly interrupted by that lovely ice storm that broke several branches off of one of our trees... Anyway back to fall. lol
Thanks for the request. Nevada is going to be one of the next ones I do. I'll probably do an east coast state next and then a western state after that, probably Nevada.
Being involved in the community of Oklahoma you are had some good points but missed a bunch of stuff that are important especially in 2021 this video would of been great about 7 years ago but Brick town isn’t the biggest entertainment sector.
There is a great music scene in Tulsa. And the nightlife scene is there. Come back and I'll show you where to go. The past 10 years it's been going off!
Yes, although Oklahoma has no National Parks, we have a few State Parks that are actually quite stellar. Oklahoma spent a lot of money on their Tourism industry, and a lot of that $$ went into natural/wildlife parks
