Filmed on Thursday, March 12 2024, I drive around Miami, OK to see what's going on.
Miami is the capital of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, after which it is named.
W. C. Lykins petitioned the U.S. Congress to pass legislation on March 3, 1891, to establish the town. He met with Thomas F. Richardville, chief of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, who agreed to meet in turn with the U.S. Indian Commission and the Ottawa Tribe.
That meeting resulted in Congress authorizing the secretary of the United States Department of the Interior to approve the townsite purchase from the Ottawa. Lykins, Richardville and Manford Pooler, chief of the Ottawa, are identified in historical accounts as "fathers of Miami."
Lykins' company, the Miami Town Company, bought 588 acres of land from the Ottawa for ten dollars an acre. On June 25-26, 1891 they held an auction of lots. In 1895, Miami incorporated and had more than 800 residents.
The discovery of rich deposits of lead and zinc under Quapaw land a few miles north caused Miami to boom. In 1907, at the time of statehood, its population was 1,893. As mining increased and more mills were built, the population more than tripled to 6,802 by 1920.
Miami was on the route of the Jefferson Highway established in 1915, with that international road running more than 2,300 miles from Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada across the border and to New Orleans, Louisiana.
Miami is home to the historic Coleman Theatre. The 1,600-seat theatre enjoyed a grand opening as a luxurious movie theater of the time. The interior includes gold leaf trim, silk damask panels, stained glass panels, marble accents, a carved mahogany staircase, Wurlitzer pipe organ, decorative plaster moldings, and bronze railings.
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