As a Oklahoman, I enjoyed you video about our state. A small correction concerning your reference to the "Oklahoma River". The actual river is the North Canadian river. The Oklahoma River is just a 7 mile section of the North Canadian that runs through the center of Oklahoman City and has only existed since 2004. You also gave me a chuckle concerning your pronunciation of Osage and Ouachita. Osage is Oh sage like the plant. Ouachita is pronounced Waa shee taw. (You also mispelled Ouachita.) It's okay, it takes a lot of Oklahomas a life time to properly pronounce a lot of the Native American influenced words you find throughout the state.

Oklahoma lost a lot of its population during the Dust Bowl. I'm surprised you didn't mention that.

My great great grandfather came to Oklahoma on the Chickasaw Trail of Tears. I grew up in the D/FW area. Went to Oklahoma after I got out of the service. Got connected to my Chickasaw culture and raised a family with my wife. The slow pace of life agrees with me. I love it here. I love being involved with my tribe. It’s a great place to live if you have simple tastes and like a slow pace to your life.

All of the major oil companies were headquartered in Tulsa and nearby cities until the oil embargo in the 70s. In fact, Phillips Petroleum is the reason Bartlesville has an impressive skyline for its size.

Odd fact: Oklahoma is slightly bigger and more populous than the entire country of Uruguay.

In the 60s my brother worked in NYC and was asked about his state of origin - Oklahoma. He told his friend that the state had just got electricity the year before (as a joke) - and the guy believed him! Next year we were going to get indoor plumbing.

"but for most Oklahomans that's perfectly OK... Most people who live there are perfectly happier having fewer people nearby and a slower pace to life." That is well said! Very cool video :)

The thing is, a lot of grads who graduate from OU / OSU find that all the jobs are in Dallas. It’s the reason you see so many Oklahomans have to move to Texas.

I really was surprised when I get to know Oklahoma has 4M population. It’s as populous as Oregon or Louisiana. To be fair, it’s still a fair amount of population for interior of the US , compared to the west coast Oregon or gulf coast Louisiana.

I live in Oklahoma and the last statement is true. Families don’t really leave Oklahoma and it’s almost a tight knit community. Every family has history of Indians and even my kids are registered Cherokee. Such an interesting state and glad to be here. Tulsa!

14:04 I live in Texas, and I have had many friends from Oklahoma and it is a prime example of how short distances can produce very different cultures.

As a Oklahoman, I can confirm we did the best job to keep people out of our state :)

I’m not native to Oklahoma but have recently called it home. Its geography is actually amazing when you consider all the variety of environments we have here! There’s the alabaster caverns with deposits of some of the rarest gypsum in the world! There’s sand dunes, the majestic witchita and quartz mountians and so much more!! That being said we do also have terrible infrastructure, parks n rec scandals/underfunding, and one of the worst superfund sites in picher!

Osage is pronounced "O-sage" like sage the herb. Ouachita is pronounced "WASH-i-tah".

I’d like to add one correction to this video: Although its headquarters may be in Houston today, Phillips 66 was originally headquartered in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, which is located about 40 miles or so north of Tulsa. I’ve been to Bartlesville many times, since my mom lives there (it’s actually her hometown), and I’ve seen the house that the Phillips family lived in. A lot of history connected with Phillips 66 can be found in Bartlesville.

I feel like you forgot a very imported small town. Cushing has the largest oil tank farm in the world that's why they call it "Pipeline Crossroad of the World"

You may have cared to mention that there was a significant amount of immigration from Oklahoma during the 30's dust bowl era and WW2 in the 40's when the population decreased by over 60,000 or 8%.

When you mentioned The Port Facilities at Houston, I really thought you would mention The Port of Catoosa, the most inland Port with connections to the Sea in America. Nothing like Houston but so many are surprised as it's a little known fact.

I believe you missed a very important factor to the lack of population in Oklahoma, being the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Over 440,000 people migrated out of Oklahoma during this time due to the weather. The dust bowl was a natural and manmade event. Abnormally die (natural) which over farming/over tilling (manmade) destroying the natural grass lands leaving a desert, more or less. Another huge drop happened in the mid 1980s during the "oil glut". Both events could be responsible for 2-4 million people today with birth rates alone (At these times). So, if these events didn't happen Oklahoma's population could now potentially be 6-8 million people.

In 1900, when Dallas was becoming an industrial hub, Tulsa had 1,300 people and OKC had around 10,000. I think it’s pretty remarkable there are now two metro areas with populations over 1 million, and despite Oklahoma’s bad reputation they both have solid growth rates, even with DFW’s magnetic effect to young professionals.

As someone who grew up in Oklahoma then moved to Texas for high school and college, I can confirm that many people move to Texas for job opportunities. Also, if you’re an immigrant, it is easier to find a community and ethnic food and products in big Texas cities compared to Oklahoma. But as someone who also moved back to Oklahoma, I can say that I do like the slower pace of life and lack of traffic quite a lot.

Correction: at 0:22, he says that the single city of Dallas has 7.6 million people. The city proper only has a population of 1.3 million people and the 7.6 million population is the entire DFW metroplex area.

As an Okie, all I have to say is that one just needs to drive through it to see why so few live here. Outside of the local college sports team named after land thieves, this state really has nothing going for it. Tornadoes, ice storms, flooding, and, somehow, earthquakes. We're near the bottom of every Quality of Life metric imaginable. Why do I live here? My parents retired to here and I wanted my kids to know them before they pass. And, it is relatively inexpensive to live here.

Hey, no mention of the McLellan-Kerr navigational system? Tulsa metro is home to the furthest inland port, and thus hosts a plethora of manufacturing companies, especially relating to oil field equipment or chemical plant equipment. It's a huge piece of geography that shapes the state. Also, the Tulsa airport was once busier than the NYC, London, and Paris airports COMBINED!!! The oil boom lead to staggering wealth accumulation (and some unsavory stories like the new movie based on the book, killers of the flower moon, depict). Both of those really deserve a mention. Whoa Nellie is still used today, and came from the first commercially productive oil well in 1897.

I’m impressed with how much you fit into a 14 minute video that still manages to answer the question you posed. You gave a brief history of Oklahoma and Texas followed by where it the two states are today. As someone born and raised in Oklahoma, but has family that lives all over the US (including in Texas), I think you did a great job! Obviously if someone wanted to dive deeper into the history or other reasons you cite for either state, then they could find resources that provides more information. Thanks for making and sharing this video! I enjoy your channel and videos! I wasn’t expecting this video, but happy you made it!

Just a quick note on your list of petroleum companies headquartered in Texas. Actually Phillips and Conoco were both headquartered in Oklahoma (Phillips being started in Oklahoma and Conoco moving to OK in 1929). So during the formative years of the states history (Conoco moved HQ to Houston sometime mid century, Phillips stuck around quite a bit longer than that). But neither headquarters was in a major urban center in OK. Maybe that made it less attractive? Or the presence of the port and reserves in Houston was also surely a factor.

I have lived in north Texas my entire life. But spend time in Oklahoma often. I have considered making it my home. Currently I am trying to convince my wife that we should buy property in southwest Oklahoma for a cabin and getaway. I love the remoteness and lack of people. Too many people in Texas and is strongly dislike urban areas. In my opinion and experience, there are many good folks there.

I spent lots of time in Oklahome during my Army career. I love Oklahoma. I retired in Texas as I am a native Texan. I have lots of friends there and we visit several times a year.

I've been to Oklahoma. Seemed peaceful and quiet. Exactly the way I like it.

Thanks for highlighting my home state in your vid. Most folks outside Oklahoma have no idea how diverse our geography is. We have a little bit of everything and it makes life fun and interesting. We as Oklahomans have a million day trips we can take before we get bored inside our state.

As a non American i really enjoy this channel. You've taught me a lot about the US I would've otherwise never known 👍

Coming from Oklahoma I enjoyed this. The ending was well said. I’ve lived about half my life in okc. Okc huge. The amount of cities that have double the population , that you could fit into Okc is wild.

Tulsa does have the farthest inland port in the country. Also, Conoco and Phillips were Oklahoma companies that eventually moved to Houston.

Tulsa claimed the Oil Capital until the move of several oil and gas corporations to Houston. I remember Texaco's move because I was a temporary employed by them in downtown Tulsa. Something about being raided by T Boone Pickens and moving everything to Houston. I got a permanent job eventually with the Williams Companies.

Hi ! French curious girl here. Your video is soooo good. Synthetic, with all the main geography and history informations. Love it 🤩🤓

thank you for the information

Native Texan who grew up in far northern Oklahoma. It was a great place to live and I miss a lot about it (4 seasons but not tornadoes and constant wind), but I'm glad to be back home. My great, great grandparents moved to OK when it was still Indian Territory and are in the book of founding families of the state. My great great grandmother was Cherokee, but they lived in the Chickasaw area in southern OK near Ardmore. My mom was also born in OK, but they came to Texas during the dustbowl. It's a great state and I'll love it always.

Phillips 66, Conoco, Haliburton, and Kerr McGee were all headquartered and developed in Oklahoma. Over the past 25 years, they one by one all moved to Houston, mostly because of no state income taxes but also for other reasons. People want to cram into one place for some reason. I do not feel that Dallas and Houston are good places to live any longer. The quality of life is lacking. Too many sheep following the herd.

Texas also had large deep ports. Lacking these ports, and without any dependably navigable deep rivers (at the time), Oklahoma struggled with access for the flow of both inbound and outbound trade. Never underestimate the importance of sea ports.

Enjoyed the history:

I'm near Paris TX just south of eastern Oklahoma, and I have always been astounded at how severe weather seems to favor Oklahoma. It is often clear here, but if I look north, I can see thunderstorms pummeling poor Oklahoma. It's like mother nature is perpetually annoyed with it and often beats the daylights out of everything north of the Red River. It's an interesting phenomenon. I suppose it it no accident that the National Weather Service located it's headquarters in Norman.

As a child my relatives in Pennsylvania asked me questions about living in Oklahoma. One question was how I got to school. "I walked" was my answer. They then asked, "but what about the Indians"? "They walk to" I replied. These same relatives on a driving trip to California from Pennsylvania told my parents Oklahoma was too far away for a visit.

As a native Oklahoman, this was a good video. Other than several mispronunciations, the only thing I’ll correct you on is that Oklahoma is NOT part of the midwest

Well done!

I live in the panhandle. I am also a geography teacher in the panhandle. I may be using this video soon. Thanks for this.

Osage is pronounced "0h-sage (sage like the plant)" Also, Conoco-Phillips and Phillips 66 ARE Oklahoma companies. Along with Sinclair, Skelly, DX, etc. Tulsa is what it is because of its location on the Arkansas River, and its proximity to the oil fields of the Glenn Pools, and the Osage Nation. Surprised you didn't mention that Guthrie, Oklahoma was the original capital city, until the seal was moved to OKC.

I grew up in Bell Gardens Calif, In the Los Angles County , it was nick named back in the day Billy Goat Acres because the dust bowel brought a lot of Okies and Arkie's in.

As someone from the northeast I would lean far more to moving to either the Dallas or Houston metro areas for job opportunities, but Oklahoma's big appeal is that home prices are still relatively cheap even compared to Texas. My only hesitation is having to deal with tornadoes (ugh).

If you go from Texas straight north through Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota, each successive state has a smaller population.

Glad being a part of the 4 million amazing Oklahomans

great video!

Good video

Thank you for doing this video! And thank you for giving Oklahoma the credit it deserves for its natural variety and colorful history! I've seen this Oklahoma and Texas comparison pop up on a few other channels, and as a former resident of both states I'm always glad to see them. I love both states but there was a reason I chose one over the other. When I was leaving Stillwater, Oklahoma in 2016, I was originally planning on moving to Oklahoma City but I moved to Austin instead. I just need bigger and livelier cities, and Texas has that over Oklahoma. Comparing their growth and development, the importance of oil in Texas can't be overstated. Texas was a sparsely populated backwater until oil was discovered in the early 1900s. All that oil money financed the building of education and infrastructure and helped Texas diversify into other industries too. I guess Oklahoma is playing catch up now. That said, I do foresee that Oklahoma will boom and Texas will fade over the coming decades. The reason, of course, is the same reason for any other place: housing costs. The future of the United States is people being priced out and moving from one cheaper refuge to the next, and I see Oklahoma receiving the hordes of financially struggling people desperately fleeing Texas, Florida, and Colorado (after having already fled California, New York, and Washington of course).

Oklahoma has good and bad like nearly every place. I've lived here a long time and if it weren't for my wife's family I'd have been gone a long time ago. Mostly it's the weather. Hot, cold and windy to an extreme. There are numerous days every year that otherwise would be nice but for the wind. Poverty is rampant too. Impoverished people don't keep property up. High obesity and bad health abounds. Don't shoot the messenger.

I lived in Oklahoma City for eight years. The state is very affordable and a good place to raise a family, but it is extremely dull. There’s a very good reason it was mostly ignored, and simply a pass through for most of the United States early existence.

I love oklahoma but I see the lure of Texas for sure in these items 1. Oklahoma can have brutal winters. If you don't like cold, then you will leave. 2. TUL airport is nice with several direct flights, but it's not a giant hub like DFW 3. Jobs! Texas cities have done an amazing job recruiting large companies to work. Oklahoma has several nice corps, but not nearly as many as DFW or HOU 4. Texas wouldn't have these corps if wasn't for their heavy investment in infrastructure. They are proactive with building giant roads where they expect growth to occur. 5. No income taxes. Again, this is very attractive for corps to open shop here.

I have often wondered where the Panhandle of Oklahoma came from. Thank you a wonderful and interesting History lesson!!!

Very interesting video, learned things I didn't know.

We have an inland port via the Arkansas River. There’s lots of barges that go to the Mississippi River from there.

The biggest modern reason is: weather. Tornado alley (houses are built with a storm shelter) severe storms in springtime, the latitude puts it into the ice zone when an arctic blast hits in winter, in the fall it can be 80 degrees in the afternoon and an arctic blast has temps dropping into the forties.

When he means Dallas, he’s not talking about Dallas Texas, the city. He’s talking about Dallas-Ft Worth Metroplex

The vast majority of people in Oklahoma only live in a small portion of the state between the Tulsa metro and the Oklahoma City metro. The western half of Oklahoma is by and large very lightly populated, especially the closer you get to the High Plains and the Oklahoma Panhandle.

I grew up in SE OK. Although there are mointains (really they are large hills in that region) most raise cattle rather than poultry. They may even do both but rarely have i seen somone with only poultry farms. I think more people live in texas because there are more jobs available and there is no state tax. For a while, the beer in texas had higher alcohol content and tasted better prior to 2016 or 2017 when oklahoma changed its regulations on that. Oklahoma does have more relaxed Marijuana THC laws. A small town of 2500 people can have as many dispensaries as it does coffee shops. Oklahoma is slower paced in the rural areas. The cities like OKC and tulsa are faster and similar to dallas. Casinos in oklahoma are interesting. Most are owned by a native american tribe (choctaw, creek, cherokee, etc) and many people from bordering states enter oklahoma to gamble especially if they are 18-20 because bordering states have an age minimum on gambling usually stating people must be 21 or older to enter a casino. In texas gambling is illegal which is why many in the DFW and north texas area go to thackerville or durant to roll the dice. They strategically placed these casinos near the border to bring in guests from those nearby states. The little town of pacola also has a large casino very close to the arkansas border as you approach Fort Smith.

Phillip 66 was founded and is still headquartered in Bartlesville, OK. Conoco merged with Phillips to become PhillipsConoco and their primary headquarters is in Houston, but they have a satellite headquarters in Bartlesville as well

Oklahoman here. There’s a very good chance Oklahoma was visited by the Vikings before the Europeans. Look up the Heavener Rune stone. Can’t remember what it was dated to but it was definitely before 1500. There’s several other rune stones that have been found too.

I’ve lived in Tulsa Oklahoma since 1978. I have lived in Texas, New York, Nebraska and Missouri. My family is from the southeast area of Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas. My maternal great grandfather was a U.S. Deputy Marshal working out of Fort Smith, Arkansas for federal judge Isaac Parker. His area was Indian territory ( later the state of Oklahoma). He was well known for his exploits. His father was a Baptist minister who served the Native American Indian tribes and dedicated his life to them. My fathers family came from the same area, as did my mother. Many of the men worked in the coal mines, and both grandfathers served in WW1 and 2. My dad was a military man, serving in WW2 and Korea. After my time in the Air Force, I moved around quite a bit but decided to return to Oklahoma but I didn’t want to live in the southeast area because jobs were scarce. The Tulsa metropolitan area has approximately one million residents. I continued my fire department career from 1980-2017, finally retiring in 2017. Oklahoma is a very nice place to live. The weather can be unusual at times, and we have the same problems with politicians😅 that other states have. But it’s an amazing place as the 11 counties around Tulsa are known as Green Country. Southeast is very hilly, and the far western Oklahoma is flat and somewhat desert like. Oklahoma City has grown immensely along with Tulsa. There’s a lot of history here along with low cost of living, low taxes, ease of traveling due to major interstate highways throughout the state and two major airports. This is my home and we truly enjoy the area. My brother lives in Oklahoma City and my younger sister about 30 miles from me. Tulsa has many parks, walking paths, museums, and various entertainment acts that come through. It’s a very lively city with superb police, sheriff office and fire/EMS, plus great hospitals, medical providers, clinics.

Phillips was an Oklahoma company. Conoco was originally from Utah but was bought by Marland Oil and was headquartered in Ponca City Oklahoma. Halliburton technic which led to the formation of the company occurred in Oklahoma and its headquarters in Oklahoma.

We do have a small inland port, The Port of Catoosa. It’s kinda cool that a product can get on a ship in the middle of Oklahoma and end up in Asia.

I had family members who moved to Oklahoma and the first question asked when they met new people was “what church do you go to?”. They found out very quickly that if the answer did not fit the questionnaire idea they got shunned. After a few years of this they moved out even though they had good jobs, peace of mind was more important. The religious attitude drove them out. My family members are Christian just not the type of ultra-conservative that most of Oklahoma is.

Texas also didn't like Santa Ana getting rid of slavery. A point my Texas history teacher refused to mention.

Interesting video with good info. But always remember, OK is a third of the size of Texas. This was all established by the war with Mexico and the land run. OK and TX are like brothers and are pretty unique. We fight each other, but if you come after one, you are taking on both as well. I don't think any other states have this relationship. There is a large portion of companies that are based in TX or OK that have most of their employees spread across both states.

Not a large coastal port. But we do have an inland river port. Port of Catoosa. So we aren’t completely landlocked to cargo ships.

Without watching the video I will say I left oklahoma (tulsa) due to poverty, painfully cold winters and unbearably hot summers, not much to do, lack of diversity, racial segregation, poor education, high crime rate. I moved to Dallas Texas one year ago and it changed my life forever and for the better. Everything I worked so hard for in oklahoma for 10 years I got in 1 year in dallas. I will never move back to tulsa but it is My native Land Oklahoma isn't all bad but sometimes the grass is greener else where

The Port of Catoosa near Tulsa is the largest inland river port in America

Yep and when I hit the two year mark here in Tulsa I am head straight back to the east coast!

Actually the western 1/3 of the state isn’t so much crop land. The land is hilly, rocky, rough terrain. The central 1/3 is where most of the farming is done. Pretty flat. The eastern 1/3 the hills pick up again, trees everywhere, rivers, creeks, etc. The eastern 1/3 and western 1/3 are like two different worlds.

The People that claim Oklahoma has nothing but farm fields Have never seen eastern Oklahoma also regarding Dallas Fort Worth Oklahomas population will likely change within 10 to 20 years given current trends there’s already new construction going up in between I 35 and US 75 up to and around US 70

Tornado alley 😮 i know someone who lived in Poteau, in eastern Oklahoms, when he was young. 😊

Enjoyed the video- wanted to point out an error towards the end. Oklahoma actually DOES have a large port to call its own. In fact it has the largest inland port in the contigious united states, the port of catoosa in catoosa, ok (near tulsa) . This is important to local business and industries- using the arkansas river you can connect to the mississippi and make your way to the ocean. Just wanted to point that one out! We even have a rowing/crew club that rows and has a boathouse out there

Adding to your comment about the Oil companies being located in Texas. Many fellow commentators have pointed out that many of those companies were originally in Oklahoma! Halliburton was also located in Oklahoma, Duncan to be exact for many, many years, before moving to Texas!

Tulsa is a gem of a city and might have the best organic/independent live music scene in the US.

DFW has a population of 7.6 million. Dallas has a population of 1.28 million. A lot of people group that area into Dallas. Dallas is big and from some parts of fort Worth are an hour away from Dallas.

I grew up in Colorado till I was 10, then moved to TX. Both states had a joke that nobody lived in Oklahoma, they were just moving from one state to the other.

A fun movie about the Land Rush, is "Far & Away"... you'll like it. Our Governor can't spell FLAT OR Smooth, that tells you why no one lives here, our highways & streets are called "bad" washboards.

I heard "Texas is so big you can fit the entire USA, the moon and another Texas into Texas." So clearly Texas didn't need that panhandle and was generous to Oklahoma.

Several times, years ago, I drove from S. CA to KCMO. Off of I40, in NM, I used to pick up US54 and head to Wichita, KS, then on to I70 and KC. That stretch of US54 is one of the most desolate areas of this country I have ever seen. It went through parts of NM, TX, OK, and KS. I literally saw drifting soil, blowing and forming on and along the roadway.

It tried moving there. Ok city. It turned out to be the coldest winter since 1899, my heat promptly went out for two whole days. No hotels available anywhere, I slept with 5 layers on and a battery radio. 2 inches of ice cracked my windshield. Worst conditions I've ever seen, and I'm from New York State. Anyway, I stuck it out, then saw my electric bill go up literally several dollars every time the baseboard heat kicked on. Explored OK city, not impressed. Decided to move back the middle of January, 2021. Right after I got back to New York, The February 11 Storm hit Oklahoma. I called the Park Manager there, he said the temp got down to -10 and the power (and heat) were again out, this time for two weeks. I will not be going back to Oklahoma.

Correction. Dallas does not have 7.6 million people as a “single” Texas city. It is the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex; an entire metro area which contains Fort Worth which is the 12th largest city in the US and has 1 million people of it’s own.

Fracking has made earthquakes more frequent in Oklahoma. I enjoyed my visit in Oklahoma, but it’s VERY HOT! I was there during the summer and it felt like living in a sauna!

What’s annoying about living in Oklahoma is that the majority of Okies care more about the success of OU football rather than the failures of our public education system.

I'm always afraid of putting my foot in my mouth due to a technicality I'm not aware of. But, as an Oklahoman (and a Native America, though not Osage), I've never heard "Osage" pronounced O-SAHG-EH. It's always OH-SAGE. Same applies to Ouchita. I was taught (and have always heard) WASH-IT-TAH, not OH-CHE-TAH. However, that word is sorta strange and lots of people get that one wrong.

Small correction. Osage nation is pronounced: Oh - Sage (sage as in the herb) or like Stage (but without the T). The people of Oklahoma are most definitely tight nit by comparison to the rest of the county. We are all very proud of ALL our people and especially our state. Everyone I know loves living here. p.s might want to mention the Tornados here, for the outsiders.

Oklahoma has a state tax. Texas, especially Dallas has more employment options.

If you like rural outdoor life Ok. has so much more to offer. Plus its surprisingly pretty in alot of parts

Tulsa born and raised here. Great video but did miss the importance of the Dust Bowl for population loss. The Osage is pronounced oh sage with the stress on “O”. But still a really good video. Took me back to Oklahoma history growing up.

A state shaped like a meat cleaver is a badass state in my opinion.

While it lacks an ocean port, Oklahoma actually does have a couple of international seaports, including the Port of Catoosa-the farthest inland port in the US. Another interesting fact: West Texas Intermediate Crude is the benchmark for American crude oil. Cushing, Oklahoma, is the delivery and price settlement point for WTI contracts due to its central transshipment location.

I'm from Oklahoma. The government does nothing to get jobs for their people. It's a cheap place to live, but the schools suck. We had no choice but to go to Texas to find jobs.

1:45 the "oh saw gay" hahahaha it's Oh- Say-juh

Both Texas and Oklahoma, along with NewMexico and Colorado, are all such pretty states. I just road tripped through that area this past winter. I'd love to move to that area full time.