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Chickasaw Country is like N Texas
Frontier Country is like N Texas (aka the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex)
Great Plains Country is like N Texas
Green Country is like Arkansas
Choctaw Country is like SW Arkansas, NW Louisiana, NW Texas
Red Carpet Country is like the Texas Panhandle (but that rural industrial cowboy vibe of the Texas Panhandle has been moving north into KS, like Liberal)
There is no part of Oklahoma, except maybe the cities north of Enid and Ponca City, that really feel more like Kansas, so the poll results seem really wrong.
I think this is an excellent synopsis however I don't agree on Red Carpet Country. I don't see how the bulk of Red carpet is like the Texas Panhandle except for the Oklahoma panhandle part.
I'd say an easy way to determine the Kansas part of Oklahoma is to consider the Cherokee strip the "Kansas" part of Oklahoma along with the north HWY 81 corridor. From Okarche north has lots of Kansas influence. All that area is much more farmer than cowboy.
That entire area was basically settled by northern plains wheat farmers. The panhandle of Oklahoma is obviously much like the Panhandle of Texas. But ironically it's a mix of Texas lineage and northern plains lineage out there.
The light green is the Cherokee strip. Add in Kingfisher, Co and that's the Kansas part of Oklahoma (and take out Ellis county which is mixed Texas/Kansas like the Panhandle). But I agree that the rest of your description is deadly accurate.
Last edited by eddie gein; 12-14-2020 at 09:43 AM..
In all honesty I'm just sensitive to getting picked on by Texans.
I live in what would be considered the depressing part of Oklahoma and have lived in west Texas. Lubbock and Alpine. The magic out here is the vastness of the sky and the incredible sunrises and sunsets and your ability to see forever.
These are the only advantages in not having any trees.
If it makes you feel any better, Im just an adoptive Texan. Im actually a Californian which is probably worse.
Most of Texas totally sucks. I say that being quite happy living in Houston and being a huge fan of the cities here. Many parts of California that totally suck too.
I have to admit I do enjoy the big skies of Western OK/KS/TX. My issues with those areas are that they are so darn dusty. I cant go to Lubbock without sneezing like crazy.
Red Carpet Country is like the Texas Panhandle (but that rural industrial cowboy vibe of the Texas Panhandle has been moving north into KS, like Liberal)
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I'm not sure what that terminology means pertaining to Kansas, but all of SW Kansas has a number of packing plants, feedlots, etc, and is an energy patch area, (Hugoton gas fields). The three largest counties in population (Ford, Finney, and Seward) are all majority minority in terms of demographics.
As for bordering parts of Oklahoma resembling the areas they border, most if not all states are like that to some extent. Granted, Oklahoma as a whole is harder to categorize but when comparing entire states we have to look at them wholly. Oklahoma and Texas have very similar types of diversity east to west. They are the best comparable states for each other even though they can still be quite different in some respects.
Kansas is decidedly more akin to Nebraska in every way which means it really starts to look and feel different than Oklahoma and Texas.
As for bordering parts of Oklahoma resembling the areas they border, most if not all states are like that to some extent. Granted, Oklahoma as a whole is harder to categorize but when comparing entire states we have to look at them wholly. Oklahoma and Texas have very similar types of diversity east to west. They are the best comparable states for each other even though they can still be quite different in some respects.
Kansas is decidedly more akin to Nebraska in every way which means it really starts to look and feel different than Oklahoma and Texas.
That may be the case for areas of the state, but not very applicable at all to SW Kansas that has demographics that are much more similar to the OK and TX Panhandle region mainly due to how the rural economy is structured there.
Chickasaw Country is like N Texas
Frontier Country is like N Texas (aka the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex)
Great Plains Country is like N Texas
Green Country is like Arkansas
Choctaw Country is like SW Arkansas, NW Louisiana, NW Texas
Red Carpet Country is like the Texas Panhandle (but that rural industrial cowboy vibe of the Texas Panhandle has been moving north into KS, like Liberal)
There is no part of Oklahoma, except maybe the cities north of Enid and Ponca City, that really feel more like Kansas, so the poll results seem really wrong.
As for bordering parts of Oklahoma resembling the areas they border, most if not all states are like that to some extent. Granted, Oklahoma as a whole is harder to categorize but when comparing entire states we have to look at them wholly. Oklahoma and Texas have very similar types of diversity east to west. They are the best comparable states for each other even though they can still be quite different in some respects.
Kansas is decidedly more akin to Nebraska in every way which means it really starts to look and feel different than Oklahoma and Texas.
Would you all say Tulsa is more Great Plains (akin to Kansas, Nebraska, etc.) or southern-influenced?
Oklahoma City seems like a Great Plains city akin to Fort Worth but I've only been there once, briefly.
Tulsa is hard to classify. It started as an small Indian village before statehood. Was then selected as the place of residence by eastern oil men because it was across the river from the riff raff of the early oil fields but not in them. These men greatly influenced Tulsa despite the fact that a lot of the middle class residents were southerners.
All in all, Tulsa is not in the great plains (and neither are eastern KS and Nebraska for that matter) but is next door or down the street from them. Tulsa is not strictly southern but is hugely influenced by the south. It isn't midwestern but it has more midwestern influence than it probably should due to it's oil history.
Tulsa kind of belongs in that upper Ozark area with NW Arkansas and Springfield, MO but due to it's history it doesn't even quite fit there.
As for OKC, it literally sits on the edge of the great plains. Oklahoma county (where OKC is located)...
The east side is in the forest (Crosstimbers) and the west side is where you start transitioning into the plains.
Tulsa is hard to classify. It started as an small Indian village before statehood. Was then selected as the place of residence by eastern oil men because it was across the river from the riff raff of the early oil fields but not in them. These men greatly influenced Tulsa despite the fact that a lot of the middle class residents were southerners.
All in all, Tulsa is not in the great plains (and neither are eastern KS and Nebraska for that matter) but is next door or down the street from them. Tulsa is not strictly southern but is hugely influenced by the south. It isn't midwestern but it has more midwestern influence than it probably should due to it's oil history.
Tulsa kind of belongs in that upper Ozark area with NW Arkansas and Springfield, MO but due to it's history it doesn't even quite fit there.
As for OKC, it literally sits on the edge of the great plains. Oklahoma county (where OKC is located)...
The east side is in the forest (Crosstimbers) and the west side is where you start transitioning into the plains.
Tulsa in the modern era is the Upper South/Ozarks. It is southern in latitude and climate, those are hard fixed attributes that don't change. I can remember visiting there in the summer one time and getting burned after thirty minutes outside. That just doesn't happen in areas further north in the Midwest.
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