Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States. A land of both cultural and topographical diversity, tourism has become an important industry in the state. Raising wheat and lumbering are also practiced. Oklahoma City is both the state capital and its largest city.

The state got its name by putting the Choctaw words for “red” and “people” together. Some land-hungry settlers known as the Sooners (perhaps aptly named) precipitately took land before they were entitled to do so legally toward the end of the 19th century, earning Oklahoma its nickname, the Sooner State. It was admitted to the Union as the 46th state on November 16, 1907.

Oklahoma’s generally mild climate makes year-round fishing a possibility on its lakes teeming with bass, trout, and catfish. It has fifty two recreation areas and state parks such as Lake Murray, Lake Wister, Quartz Mountain and state parks located in the south which provide excellent facilities for water sports and fishing. Other natural places of interest are Black Mesa State Park which has Native American pictographs, an archeological site where dinosaur bones have been discovered, and colorful rock formations; Boiling Springs State Park which features springs bubbling up through the sand; Alabaster Cavern State Park, which is one of the largest gypsum caves known; Great Salt Plains State Park’s salt lakes; Chickasaw National Recreation Area, famous for its mineral water springs and for Lake of the Arbuckles; and, Winding Stair Mountain National Recreation Area which contains wilderness and botanical preserves.

Historical sites include outposts like the Fort Reno, Fort Supply, and Fort Gibson, Woolaroc Museum near Bartlesville, No Man’s Land Historical Museum in Goodwell, and the Black Kettle Museum in Cheyenne. The cabin of Cherokee alphabet’s inventor Sequoyah is also a state memorial one can visit, while a more remarkable attraction is the working oil well on the State Capitol grounds. The remnants of Route 66, the popular highway linking East and West, have places of interest to visit.