Oklahoma

D

Manufacturing

Oklahoma is more a producer of raw materials than of manufactured goods. Most crops and refined minerals are shipped to other states to be made into finished products, although manufacturing has grown steadily in importance. Factories in Oklahoma vary in size. Most are small, but some industries, such as aviation, electronics, tire manufacturing, and oil refining, may have 500 or more employees. Manufacturing of some type is found in every county, but only Oklahoma and Tulsa counties rank as nationally important centers.

Oklahoma’s leading industries are the production of electronics and electrical equipment, especially apparatus for communications; the manufacture of industrial machinery, such as equipment used in construction or oil extraction, internal combustion engines, and pumps; the fabrication of metal products, including creating parts for the oil industry such as pipes and valves; the production of transportation equipment, especially motor vehicles and automobile parts; food processing; and the manufacture of rubber goods, chiefly tires.

The largest factories in Oklahoma are connected with transportation. A major auto assembly plant is in Oklahoma City. Airplane assembly and repair work are done in plants at Midwest City, Bethany, Tulsa, and Broken Arrow.

Food-processing plants are common throughout the state. Flour mills are located in Blackwell, Shawnee, and Enid. Canneries for packing or freezing strawberries and vegetables are found in Stilwell, Muskogee, Okmulgee, Fort Gibson, and other eastern Oklahoma towns and cities. Creameries, ice cream plants, and bakeries are common in the metropolitan areas. Meatpacking is an important industry in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Ada, Durant, Enid, Clinton, and Lawton. Some small plants manufacture special products, such as peanut butter, potato chips, honey products, coffee, and spices.

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Local industries process many products from Oklahoma’s crops. Brushes and brooms are made from broomcorn. Cottonseed-oil mills are located in Altus, Clinton, Chickasha, Anadarko, and other cities in the cotton-growing areas of the state. Feed mills and gristmills process barley, corn, and other grains into feed.

Petroleum refining was a major industry of Oklahoma in the 1990s, with operations in Tulsa, Ponca City, Ardmore, and Oklahoma City. Plants in Southard and Duke make wallboard from gypsum, and two large mills near Pryor make the paper for gypsum wallboard. Glass is manufactured in Edmond, Okmulgee, Henryetta, Tulsa, and Sapulpa. Pottery is made in factories in Noble, Oklahoma City, and Sapulpa. Cement plants are located in Tulsa, Pryor, and Muskogee.

A variety of new industries have come into Oklahoma in recent years. Rubber tires are made at Lawton, Ada, Muskogee, Ardmore, and Oklahoma City. Clothing factories have been established at Coalgate, Seminole, Ada, Checotah, Woodward, Hominy, Pawnee, Ardmore, Miami, Oklahoma City, and Tulsa. Furniture is made in factories in Atoka, Guthrie, and other centers. Valliant, Jenks, Muskogee, and Pryor are sites of paper mills.

E

Electricity

There are many large dams to utilize the water of the Arkansas and Red river systems as a source of energy for electricity. Among Oklahoma’s largest hydroelectric dams are Tenkiller Dam on the Illinois River, Denison Dam on the Red River, Keystone Dam on the Arkansas River, and Pensacola Dam on the Grand River. Most hydroelectric dams have been built since the 1940s.

In central and western Oklahoma, the drier parts of the state, most power is generated by steam plants using coal or gas. The water supply in the lakes is not dependable enough for the generation of hydroelectric power. The large western lakes serve as sources of water supply for cities, for irrigation, and for recreation.

In the state as a whole, 95 percent of electricity is generated in plants burning coal or natural gas, and the remainder comes from hydroelectric facilities.

F

Transportation

Oklahoma had 5,195 km (3,228 mi) of railroad track in 2004. Clinton, El Reno, Enid, Oklahoma City, McAlester, Tulsa, Holdenville, Durant, and Muskogee are important railroad centers. The primary commodities originating in the state and transported by rail are nonmetallic minerals (50 percent of total freight), chemicals (11 percent), petroleum products (7 percent), and farm products (11 percent).

In 2004 Oklahoma was served by 181,394 km (112,713 mi) of highways. Of those, 1,498 km (931 mi) were part of the federal interstate highway system. Interstates 40 and 44 are the principal east-west routes; Interstate 35 bisects Oklahoma going north to south.

The state has 6 airports, most of which are privately owned. The two commercial airports handling the most passengers are at Oklahoma City and Tulsa, although neither are busy by national standards. Scheduled air service also goes into Lawton, Guymon, Muskogee, Ponca City, and Bartlesville.

The McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System was dedicated in 1971. The system connects Tulsa with the Mississippi River. Pipelines, used to transport petroleum and natural gas, crisscross the state underground. Cushing is a major pipeline center of the Southwest.

IV

The People of Oklahoma

In 1910, shortly after Oklahoma became a state, its population was 1,657,155. The population increased each year until the 1930s, when it reached a total of 2,396,040 people. Between 1930 and 1950, however, the population decreased. Oklahoma was hit by both the national economic depression and the drought that created the Dust Bowl in the 1930s. Many farmers, unable to make a living, left the state and became migrant workers. During World War II (1939-1945) many people left Oklahoma to work in war plants in other localities. A further drop in population occurred when production stabilized or even fell in some of the great oil fields. In Seminole County, for example, the population grew rapidly between 1920 and 1930, when its oil wells were being heavily exploited. By 1960 its population had fallen to a level little higher than that in 1920.

Since 1950, however, Oklahoma’s population has gradually increased, and by 2006 it had reached 3,579,212. This figure represents an increase of 9.7 percent over 1990. Population densities generally decline from east to west across the state, and the highest densities are found in the metropolitan areas. The average population density for the state in 2006 was 20 persons per sq km (52 per sq mi).

A

Population Patterns

Urbanization was rapid in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1940 the urban share of the population stood at just 38 percent. In 1950 the urban population had grown slightly larger than the rural population. By 1960 the urban share of the population had jumped to 63 percent. During the last half of the 20th century, the share of urban dwellers remained fairly stable, and in 2000 some 65 percent of Oklahoma’s people lived in cities or towns. The increased use of machinery on farms and in mining, and the replacement of croplands by pastureland, influenced the migration of people from rural to urban areas. Manufacturing, wholesaling, retailing, and service industries helped to absorb workers.

In 1990 approximately 98 percent of the people living in Oklahoma were born in the United States. Of the total population in 2000, whites constitute 76.2 percent, Native Americans 7.9 percent, blacks 7.6 percent, Asians 1.4 percent, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders 0.1 percent, and those of mixed heritage or not reporting race 6.9 percent. Hispanics, who may be of any race, were 5.2 percent of the population.

According to the 2000 census, there were 273,200 Native Americans in Oklahoma. This is a relatively large Native American community, trailing only Alaska, New Mexico, and South Dakota as a percentage of total population. Most Native Americans live in the Ouachita and Ozark regions of eastern Oklahoma in what was originally Indian Territory. The Plains peoples live in small groups in the western part of the state. Most Native Americans live in rural areas.

There were 261,000 blacks in Oklahoma in 2000. The largest number live in Oklahoma City and Tulsa and in southern and eastern Oklahoma, especially in the Coastal Plain and the Sandstone Hills part of the Central Lowland.