Oklahoma City was born in a single day, when the Great Land Run of April 22, 1889, allowed tens of thousands of people to race across the border on foot, horseback, wagon, and even bicycle to settle unclaimed land: What was just a solitary railroad station grew to a tent city of 10,000 residents overnight. In 1907, Oklahoma became a state, and 3 years later, Oklahoma City became its capital. But it was a tragic event -- the April 1995 bombing of a federal building that claimed 168 lives -- that catapulted the city to headline status on the international news front. Since then, Oklahoma City, with a population of more than 500,000 people, has reinvented itself with ongoing revitalization projects (such as the Bricktown entertainment district) that have transformed it into one of the state's most exciting destinations. Yet despite its push to modernity, its frontier heritage remains evident in attractions such as the must-see National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum and the Oklahoma History Center, and in annual events such as Red Earth, the largest Native American festival in the world.
Feeding the Meter
The eternal quest for change to feed the country's ubiquitous and ever-loathed parking meters started in, of all places, Oklahoma, when the first meter in the U.S. was installed here in 1935.
