Oklahoma Facts

• The name "Oklahoma" comes from the Choctaw words: "okla" meaning people and "humma" meaning red, so the state's name literally means "red people."
• Oklahoma has the largest American Indian population of any state. Many of the 252,420 American Indians living in Oklahoma today are descendants from the original 67 tribes inhabiting Indian Territory.
• Thirty-nine of the American Indian tribes currently living in Oklahoma are headquartered in the state.
• The governor of Oklahoma is Brad Henry (took office in January 2003); the lieutenant governor is Mary Fallin.
• Oklahoma's bipartisan state government houses a bicameral legislature.
• Oklahoma has 43 colleges and universities.
• The highest point in the state is Black Mesa in Cimarron County (4,973 feet); the lowest is due east of Idabel in McCurtain County (287 feet).
• Oklahoma has more man-made lakes than any other state, with over one million surface acres of water and 2,000 more miles of shoreline than the Atlantic and Gulf coasts combined.
• Oklahoma is the third largest gas-producing state in the nation.
• Oklahoma ranks fourth in the nation in the production of all wheat, fourth in cattle and calf production; fifth in the production of pecans; sixth in peanuts and eighth in peaches.
• Oklahoma's four mountain ranges include the Ouachitas, Arbuckles, Wichitas and the Kiamichis.
• Forests cover approximately 24 percent of Oklahoma
• Oklahoma is bordered by six states: Texas to the south and west, Arkansas and Missouri to the east, Kansas to the north and Colorado and New Mexico at the tip of the northwestern Oklahoma panhandle.
• Oklahoma is comprised of 77 counties.
• Oklahoma has a land area of 69,919 square miles and ranks 18 in the nation in size.
• According to 1990 U.S. census data, Oklahoma's population is 3,258,000. Of those, 82.1 percent are white, 8 percent American Indian, 7.4 percent African American, 2.7 percent Hispanic and 1.1 percent Asian.
• Oklahoma's two most populous cities are Oklahoma City, with 463,201 residents, and Tulsa with 374,851. The next largest cities are Norman, with a population of 87,290 and Lawton, which has 86,028 people.

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