Oklahoma Panhandle
The Oklahoma Panhandle ( Panhandle ) is the westernmost strip of territory of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The region consists of the Cimarron, Texas and Beaver County the three juxtaposed in east-west direction counties.
In the census in 2010, the area had 28 751 inhabitants, which represents a decrease of 361 inhabitants compared to the year 2000.
Geography
The Oklahoma Panhandle is 267 kilometers (166 miles) long and 60 km ( 37 miles) wide. It occupies an area of 15,908 square kilometers ( about 8 percent of the area of Oklahoma ), making it larger than the state of Connecticut.
The Oklahoma Panhandle is bordered on the north by Colorado, on the west by New Mexico, south to Texas and east to the rest of Oklahoma.
The largest city in the region is Guymon, the administrative seat of Texas County.
The Black Mesa, one to 1,737 meter high Table Mountain at the intersection of three states of Colorado, New Mexico and Oklahoma, reached in the northwest of Cimarron County a height of 1,516 meters and is the highest point in Oklahoma.
The largest river, which flows through the Oklahoma Panhandle, is the Cimarron River, a tributary of the Arkansas.
Cities and Towns
Most important cities
- Beaver ( administrative seat of Beaver County)
- Boise City ( county seat of Cimarron County)
- Goodwell ( seat of Oklahoma Panhandle State University)
- Guymon ( administrative seat of Texas County and largest city in the Oklahoma Panhandle )
- Hooker
- Texhoma
More places
- Adams
- Balko
- Felt
- Forgan
- Gate
- Hardesty
- Kenton
- Keyes
- Knowles
- Optima
- Turpin
- Tyrone
History
The area of present-day Oklahoma Panhandle, which was then known as the Territory of Cimarron, was first settled in 1800 by white ranchers. After the area remained unnoticed for a long time, in essence, was established in 1887 tried to establish a separate territorial government in Beaver. After this project was, however, failed in the Congress, the territory in 1890, in the Oklahoma - incorporated territory.
The Beaver County, which initially contained the whole area was in 1907 at the same time shared with the emergence of the State of Oklahoma in three parts and so built the still existing Countygrenzen in Oklahoma Panhandle.