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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