Muskogee Oklahoma native here and I can tell you that we are absolutely with fine being only 4 million strong, we have no desire to bring millions more to Oklahoma, we are good.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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!

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!

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 :)

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

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.

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

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.

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%.

Phillips 66, Conoco 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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'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.

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

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!

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.

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"

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.

Glad being a part of the 4 million amazing Oklahomans

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.

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

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.

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

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.

This is a great way to compare the two: I grew up in Lawton, Oklahoma, which in the ‘80s was the 3rd largest city in the state with a population near 100,000. For the past twenty years, I’ve lived in Wichita Falls, Texas, similar in size at around 105,000 people and (last time I checked) is the 37th largest city in Texas. As much as I enjoy living in Texas, I will say I don’t really find any of the major cities to be very charming. The opposite is true of Oklahoma. In fact, Tulsa would be the first (TX/OK) city I would choose to live in.

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.

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

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

thank you for the information

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).

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

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.

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

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.

Enjoyed the history:

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.

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.

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 live in okc and really liked this video. Oklahoma has a ton of history that is overlooked. It was funny seeing you get something’s wrong about Oklahoma. Oklahoma is a surprising very important state for the US

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.

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.

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

Well done!

great video!

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.

I'm an Oklahoman and proud to be an Oklahoman for sure. I enjoy visiting Dallas, Houston and LA but Oklahoma is my home. I love my small town life in Tecumseh/Shawnee . I love the light traffic

I'm from Oklahoma and I appreciated your presentation.

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 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.

Great coverage of Oklahoma! I was born here in the 1960's and still have no desire to live anywhere else. This state has more Native Americans and different tribes than any other state. Overall Oklahoma is very Christian oriented. A co-worker of mine moved here from NJ and when he was staying here for the job interview, he was unsure until he and his wife went grocery shopping. They were shocked when people would walk by smiling at them and tell them to have a great day. It's a very friendly place. The traffic is much less congested, and the cost of living is hard to beat. I know of many families moving here from California where they lived in a 2-bedroom 1 bath house that sold for $900k or even much more, and here for $300k you can buy a beautiful 3 or 4 bed home with all the amenities and have enough money left over to pay all their debts off. I have noticed that in the last 5 years with liberal policies driving away people from CA and NY, many more cars are on the road and housing additions are being built. Hopefully these new Oklahoman's will leave the "hustle and bustle" attitude behind and learn to be happy.

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

Good video

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.

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 really enjoyed his closing comment. About how we are happy and laid back. It's true

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

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.

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.

Thanks for sharing, i'd be curious to learn more about the native american land and population within Oklahoma from 1800-present.

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.

I've lived in Oklahoma all of my life. I love that it isn't so populated. There are only two things I would change about Oklahoma, and it's the unbearable humidity and heat during the summer and the political majority.

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

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!

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 moved from Indiana to southern Oklahoma in 2017, mostly to escape the cold, snowy winters up north. I've studied the history of this area quite a bit, and I'm rather surprised you didn't mention the 1899 proposed state of Sequoyah that would have been made up of the Indian Territory, prior to it being combined into Oklahoma. You included my area (Marshall County) in the great plains, but this area is FAR from flat. The state has 3 mountain ranges... the Wichita in the southwest, Ouachita in the southeast, and Ozarks in the northeast. Where I am is a more ancient, much more eroded mountain range, the Arbuckle Mts which connected between Wichita and Ouachita (pronounced the same despite different spelling.) People around here are rather anal about how things are pronounced. For example the Washita River... pronounced Wash it ah, which is also pretty close to how Wichita and Ouachita should be pronounced. All 3 spellings mean the same thing, good hunting ground. :)

There has always been such a rivalry between Texas and Oklahoma

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

I lived & worked in Enid OK for 2 years. Love that time.❤

Okie here. I personally enjoy shorter commute times and having few traffic jams. We have all the convenient and cool stuff large states and mega cities have without most* of the negatives that come with them. Texas is like California or the northeast, but with cowboys and bbq.

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

Strange vid skid, yet I enjoyed it, thanks! In a nutshell - all states are settled by Afrikaners or Amerikaaners and such - but some more than others... Thanks for engaging video and lots of interesting historical tidbits, plus some opaque/indirect references to Indiana Jones I think. Great vid!

I was a previous resident of the state of Oklahoma. I can say there are several reasons why its population is so small. First off, its initial population was low to began with it being indian territory and the dust bowl. A large reason is lack of multiple major industries in the state other than oil and gas. There really isn't much else there to make money. A high percentage of people who live there do have money but they choose not to spend it. They sit on it, all the while fighting growth. Oklahoman's don't care about the rest of the world or the nation only their own state. It is very tight group of people and most never leave the state. On top of all that, the weather is incredibly unpredictable and when it happens, it mostly destroys the landscape. Tornadoes, floods, ice storms, and constant heavy winds. All make for a very unpleasant way of life.

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.

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

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.

The initial land runs did not displace the Native American tribes. They were on unassigned lands. The first land run in 1889 was on lands purchased by the Union from the Creek and Seminole tribes in the Reconstruction Treaties of 1866. After the Civil War, and due to the tribes joining the Confederacy which broke their original treaties, the treaties had to be renegotiated. The Creeks and Seminoles had far more land than their population needed.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

I grew up in Enid Oklahoma...it was a good place to be a kid. I live in Texas now and enjoy the warmer winters. Anything north of the Arbuckles is very cold in Dec Jan and Feb

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

Well, as a Texan, I wouldn't live anywhere else. If I had to, it would be Oklahoma. Great state.

What's odd is that the Great Plains also make up about 1/3 of the state of New Mexico, *300 miles west of Oklahoma.*

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.