Calling On The Capitol: A Weekday Getaway to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Calling On The Capitol: A Weekday
Getaway to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
By: a.d. elliott | Take the Back Roads - Art and Other Odd Adventures
I’ve just returned from a quick road trip to Oklahoma City, and the question I’m most often asked is, “Why would you want to go there?” I understand the question. Oklahoma is often overlooked, but that is precisely why Oklahoma City is worth stopping for.
Oklahoma City was founded on April 22, 1889, during one of the most chaotic moments in American history: the opening of the “Unassigned Lands” of Indian Territory to non-Native settlers. At noon, a gunshot signaled the start of the land run, and within hours, nearly 10,000 people converged on the area to stake their claims. The movie Far and Away dramatized a later land rush, but it captured the spirit of urgency and chaos that defined those early days.
Because Oklahoma City invested early in rail infrastructure, it quickly became a hub for stockyards and grain storage. When oil was discovered in 1928, the city boomed. But prosperity was not steady. The Great Depression and the Dust Bowl devastated both agriculture and oil demand, leaving the city battered and marked by Hoovervilles along the North Canadian River. World War II revived the local economy through the growth of Tinker Air Force Base, but in later decades, particularly the stagflation of the 1970s and 1980s, the city was hit hard once again.
Urban renewal began in earnest in 1992, when Mayor Ron Norick spearheaded large-scale redevelopment projects, including the canals in Bricktown. That period of renewal was tragically overshadowed by the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history, claiming 168 lives and injuring hundreds more. The city carries that grief openly and with dignity.
Oklahoma City has produced an impressive range of talent: prima ballerina Yvonne Chouteau, author Ralph Ellison, filmmaker Ron Howard, and all members of The Flaming Lips. It is also home to lighter bits of cultural trivia, such as the invention of the parking meter and Gayla Peevey, forever singing about a hippopotamus for Christmas.
This was my second visit to Oklahoma City, but my first real chance to explore. I stayed at the historic Skirvin Hotel, an Art Deco landmark built in 1911 by oilman William “Bill” Skirvin. Like the city itself, the hotel declined and closed before being meticulously restored in 2007. It reopened with historical accuracy and with a ghost story. Supposedly haunted by a former maid, the Skirvin’s most curious trait is its reputation for disrupting basketball teams. I didn’t encounter any spirits (perhaps because I don’t play basketball), but I do recommend the Breakfast Cobb.
I came to Oklahoma City primarily to visit the Memorial, but I also explored Old St. Joseph’s Cathedral and the Oklahoma City Museum of Art’s Chihuly exhibit. I stumbled upon the American Banjo Museum in Bricktown—a surprise highlight that deserves its own essay. I ran out of time for the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum and the Flaming Lips compound, and I forgot to hunt down the original parking meter entirely.
Clearly, I’ll need to return.
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About the Author
a.d. elliott is a wanderer, photographer, and storyteller traveling through life
She shares her journeys at Take the Back Roads, explores new reads at Rite of Fancy, and highlights U.S. military biographies at Everyday Patriot.
You can also browse her online photography gallery at shop.takethebackroads.com.
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