How about Tahlequah? (Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Muskogee: relocate, real estate, smog)

[Sooner-On-The-Move]

Originally Posted by Jammie

Griff, I've heard of Norman, OK quite often. We listen to the weather channel and they mention it a lot. I believe it has some pretty sophisticated equipment for tracking tornadoes and other storms.

Well, when you get more tornadoes than anywhere else in the country, you have to develop doppler radar and such to tell people when to abandon their trailers

[DeniseC]

My was dad was born in Drumright in 1927. He said it was on a hill and th ere were a great deal of pine trees. He said he remembered that it was pretty. His family moved to Kinmundy, Il was he was quite young. Does anyone have any thing interestting to say about Drumright, OK?

[NoSugar]

Originally Posted by Griffis

Tahlequah is one of the nicer places to live, if you have to be stuck in Oklahoma.

Yes, the state has a lot of ultra-conservatives, hardcore christians and an overall redneck mentality, but Tahlequah is a bit more progressive.

In general, the state is probably better as far as issues of race goes than deeper south like Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, even rural Texas, etc. Smaller towns would be iffy, but any college town would probably present no real problem for your family.

I've spent a lot of time in Tahlequah and have family there. It's quite pretty (as Oklahoma goes) and, as I say, the presence of the university is probably a help as far as it being a little more open-minded.

This is a slightly different matter to your concern, but my sister who lives in Tahlequah is gay, and she and her partner are very open but have had no problems and have a large group of straight and gay friends. In fact, my sister works for the District Attorney and her partner sits on the Chamber of Commerce.

I have to say, the circle of people I know in Oklahoma are not at all racist and wouldn't look twice at a mixed family. But smaller, more rural towns are likely to be at the very least overly curious and at worst possibly a little hostile. There are a lot of bumpkins and creationist-types here. It's just a sad cause of living in this part of the country where there is no real value placed on education outside of MVPs on some draggly football team and beer deals at the local liquor store.

By the way, if you don't mind me asking-- where would you be coming from?

Hello, I live near Tahlequah well about an hour south of there. It is very beautiful on this side of the state. Most of your people are very friendly. I am not sure if you are looking at lake property or not, but just south of there I go to a 12 Step church that holds AA meetings and some of the members there are in recovery. For whatever its worth to you I will mention most of all your men wear ball caps and we are accepting more than not. Some of the area towns are small. Have you thought about Muskogee? Tulsa is rather big and more citified if I may say. Tahlequah isn't that far from Tulsa or Muskogee area. I would like to say that Tulsa does not give the eastern part of the state its beautiful justice it deserves. Most people are open minded around here. And as for the weather well.......lets say it changes constantly. Snow is hard to come by for the most part but the small towns do have there sand trucks out. I personally have lived in a lot of states but Oklahoma is one I would choose to stay in. NoSugar

[Griffis]

Originally Posted by DeniseC

My was dad was born in Drumright in 1927. He said it was on a hill and th ere were a great deal of pine trees. He said he remembered that it was pretty. His family moved to Kinmundy, Il was he was quite young. Does anyone have any thing interestting to say about Drumright, OK?

I have only passed through Drumright. I believe you go through it when you go OKC->Tulsa on old Route 66, but it may be another old highway that got bypassed by the interstate, killing a lot of small towns.

The only part of Drumright I've ever seen was what was right on either side of the old highway, but I really did think it was pretty and cool looking. Some low rolling hills as I recall. Unusual for the state.

However, a lot of the buildings I remember seeing looked like they had been closed a long time. Don't know anything about the community.

[AshleyMc]

Graduated from NSU at Tahlequah, It's a beautiful town, also because of the college there were lots of cultural activities all the time...beautiful scenery with the Illinois River in your backyard, mountains, fishing, hiking etc. Pretty accepting of different cultures, I thought it was one of the better small communities in Northeast Oklahoma...I think you'll like it, also Tulsa is only an hour away for the big malls etc.

[Griffis]

Yeah, I had several friends who went to NSU in the late 80s/early 90s. My father taught there for several years.

My sister and her partner are pretty big movers and shakers in the Tahlequah community. It is a pretty place--among the prettiest in the state--and quite tolerant. Its proximity to Tulsa is nice too-- you can visit there and shop, etc., but also avoid living in the traffic which can sometimes get terrible in T-Town.

Tahlequah is fairly slow paced but also seems to have something going on usually.

[Sooner-On-The-Move]

Originally Posted by DeniseC

My was dad was born in Drumright in 1927. He said it was on a hill and th ere were a great deal of pine trees. He said he remembered that it was pretty. His family moved to Kinmundy, Il was he was quite young. Does anyone have any thing interestting to say about Drumright, OK?

Yeah. I've been pulled over there more than in any other town in Oklahoma, in spite of the fact that I've never moved there. Well, it's interesting, right? The place is a speed trap. That's about it.

[Flamingo343]

We bought a house trailer at Lake Tenkiller and love the area. We live in Stigler, about 40 mins. away and go there every weekend. We go into Tahlequah for dinner and some antique shopping and like the town very much. My husband used to live there, in the early 90's and loved it. It has changed quite a bit since then and grown considerably.

We didn't want to live in that large a town, though, and consider it a small city, so we opted for a more rural area of about 2500 in Stigler. There are alot of small towns around here and the biggest drawback to many of them is a lack of shopping and other commerce. We prefer to drive to where we want to shop, mainly Ft. Smith, Arkansas; Muskogee; and Tulsa--then we live rural and enjoy the country life.

We have only lived in OK for a little over a year. In general, we have found the people to be very kind and generous. And just plain friendly. Very different from CA. We are not really religious and/or political so we don't notice some of that kind of stuff. There ARE rednecks and there is prejudice here against Hispanics especially---the belief here seems to be they need to stay out of Oklahoma.

Just yesterday, I wanted to place an ad for a yard sale in our local paper. I called and missed the deadline, which was Mon. night. The lady took my ad anyway and that would never happen in CA. The local butcher laughed over my wanting to buy some tri-tip and since he's from CA knew exactly what I wanted and orders me all the tri-tip I want. Everyone here eats brisket and it's gross! Little things like this happen all the time--everyone is very willing to help if they can. I love living here.

Hope you enjoy Lake Tenkiller and I wish you good luck.

[Jammie]

Does anyone know what the current population of Talequah is? According to City Data, it's about 14,000, but that's the 2000 population census.

Also, what is nice about the town? Are there a lot of flowery parks or what is the nicest thing about it?

[Ponderosa]

05 Census has it at 15K, there are 40K in Cherokee County. Counties there are little, tiny, things so there's quite a few people around.

I've visited there several times and have spent many, many days in the area. What I like about it:

1. It has a beltway around town. You can zip around anywhere quickly.
2. The area near the University is nice, historic buildings, and big trees and the bustle of a college campus.
3. The Illinois R is just east of town. It winds through some terrain is quite pretty - not western US grandeur but pretty nice nonetheless.
4. There are a lot of hills there. Coming from Tulsa it is pretty flat but when you approach Tahlequah the topography really changes quickly. Very different from Tulsa and even Eufala area just south.
5. There are some beautiful residential areas S. of Dowling and East of Muskogee Ave. Huge trees and green lawns. For someone from the desert, it is pure eye candy.
6. They have a drive-thru convenience store. We don't have that in Phoenix. (joking here, but I had never seen that before)
7. It's clean, there are new chain restaurants and stores, a new hospital, new churches, new medical buildings. It looks sharp and like an up and coming place rather than a run down town hoping for retirees to regenerate it. There is a lot of civic pride and it shows.
8. Lake Tenkiller is one of the prettiest lakes I have seen east of the Rockies with crystal clear water.
9. Everyone you deal with is nice to you - happy to take your money - but genuinely nice.
10. 33% of the people there have BS degrees or higher making it one of the most educated towns in the US.
11. The local paper devotes much of its coverage to things going on in the area schools. They published the pictures of every graduate of every school in the area this spring. There are stories on the schools sports, of course, but also on the academic teams and their performance, and the FFA kids with their goats and pigs. I like a place that takes an interest in its kids.
12. I like it that not everyone there is "white". There are lots of Indians, a few blacks, and a very few Hispanics in the stores. I toured a couple of schools and there is diversity in the classrooms too. The Indian community and the white community are integrated. There is no reservation there that the Indians live on and no reservation border town setup like in the West. They seem to be all mixed together. Much better than say Winslow AZ or Gallup NM.
13. It is less than 60 minutes to the mall-olopolis of Broken Arrow on a divided highway. And there is a mall in Muskogee only 20 minutes away, though I have not seen that.
14. I can catch a Southwest flight to family in Phoenix three times a day out of Tulsa. It takes me less time to get to the Tulsa airport from Tahlequah than it does to get to the Phoenix airport from where I live!