About Guthrie, OK, 73044

Guthrie is a city and county seat in Logan County, Oklahoma, United States, and a part of the Oklahoma City Metroplex. The population was 10,191 at the 2010 census, a 2.7 percent increase from 9,925 in the 2000 census.

First known as a railroad station stop, after the Land Run of 1889, Guthrie immediately gained 10,000 new residents, who began to develop the town. It was rapidly improved, designated as the territorial capital, and in 1907 as the first state capital of Oklahoma. In 1910, state voters chose the larger Oklahoma City as the new capital in a special election.

Guthrie is nationally significant for its late 19th and early 20th-century commercial architecture collection. The Guthrie Historic District includes over 2,000 buildings and is designated a National Historic Landmark. Historical tourism is vital to the city, and its Victorian architecture provides a backdrop for Wild West and territorial-style entertainment, carriage tours, replica trolley cars, specialty shops, and art galleries.

History

Guthrie was established in 1887 as a railroad station called Deer Creek on the Southern Kansas Railway (later acquired by the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway) running from the Kansas–Oklahoma border to Purcell. The name was later changed to Guthrie, named for jurist John Guthrie of Topeka, Kansas. A post office was established on April 4, 1889.

In 1889, some fifty thousand potential settlers gathered at the edges of the Unassigned Lands in hopes of staking a claim to a plot. At noon on April 22, 1889, cannons resounded at a 2,000,000-acre section of Indian Territory, launching President Benjamin Harrison’s “Hoss Race” or Land Run of 1889. People ran for both farmlands and towns.

During the next six hours, about 10,000 people settled in what became the capital of the new Territory of Oklahoma. Within months, Guthrie was developed as a modern brick-and-stone “Queen of the Prairie” with municipal water, electricity, a mass transit system, and underground parking garages for horses and carriages.

Guthrie’s Western heritage includes the fact that, on April 13, 1898, outlaw Richard “Little Dick” West, a former member of the Wild Bunch gang, was in town when approached by legendary lawmen Heck Thomas and Bill Tilghman. He refused to surrender and was killed in the resulting gunfight. He is buried in the Summit View Cemetery near outlaw Bill Doolin in Guthrie.

Hobart Johnstone Whitley, also known as HJ and the ‘Father of Hollywood,’ was the first president of the Guthrie Chamber of Commerce. Whitley built the first brick block building in the territory for his National Loan & Trust Company. The local people asked him to be the first Governor of Oklahoma. Whitley traveled to Washington, D.C., where he persuaded the U.S. Congress to allow Guthrie to be the new capital of the future state of Oklahoma. This was specified in the 1906 Oklahoma Enabling Act, which established specific requirements for the new state constitution. By 1907, when Guthrie became the state capital, it looked like a well-established Eastern city.

Guthrie prospered as the administrative center of the territory, but it was eclipsed in economic influence by Oklahoma City early in the 20th century. Oklahoma City had become a major junction for several railroads and had also attracted a significant industry in the form of meat packing. Oklahoma City business leaders began campaigning soon after statehood to make Oklahoma City the new state capital, and in 1910 a special election was held to determine the location of the state capital. Ninety-six thousand four hundred eighty-eight votes were cast for Oklahoma City, 31,031 for Guthrie, and 8,382 for Shawnee. Governor Charles N. Haskell, who was in Tulsa on the day of the election, ordered his secretary W. B. Anthony to have Oklahoma Secretary of State Bill Cross obtain the state seal and transport it to Oklahoma City, despite having been served a restraining order by Logan County Sheriff John Mahoney blocking the transfer. Anthony received written authorization from Cross, retrieved the seal from the Logan County courthouse, and delivered it to Oklahoma City.

After the capital was transferred, Guthrie lost much of its government-related business and numerous residents. It began to dwindle in size and soon lost its status as Oklahoma’s second-largest city, initially to Muskogee, then later to Tulsa. A challenge to the new state capital was heard in the Oklahoma Supreme Court; it upheld the election and moved in its ruling on February 9, 1911, as did the United States Supreme Court in 1911.

The central district of Guthrie was designated a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service in 1999 in recognition of the city’s importance to state history and its rich architecture.

As a result of Guthrie’s early loss of prominence, it has a well-preserved Victorian enclave. Whereas growth and inattentive urban planning caused other Oklahoma towns, such as Oklahoma City, to destroy much of their early downtown architecture, much of Guthrie’s entire central business and residential district is intact.

The National Finals Steer Roping Rodeo is held in Guthrie. On six occasions, the Texas rodeo promoter Dan Taylor was chute director for the competition in Guthrie.

Historical tourism has become a significant industry for the town. Guthrie is Oklahoma’s most prominent urban Historic District, containing 2,169 buildings, 1,400 acres, and 400 city blocks. Guthrie is a “Certified City;” It received a Community Development Block Grant to inventory infrastructure features for Capital Improvement Planning.

Guthrie has two lakes to the south, Liberty Lake and Guthrie Lake. Its museums include the Oklahoma Territorial Museum and host the Oklahoma International Bluegrass Festival, which draws 15,000 visitors annually. In addition, Guthrie claims to be the “Bed and Breakfast capital of Oklahoma.

Guthrie also hosts the Guthrie Scottish Rite Masonic Temple, one of the world’s largest Masonic Centers, which in years past has brought artists such as Henry Mancini, Lena Horne, Victor Borge, and Luciano Pavarotti to local audiences.

Guthrie has Oklahoma’s oldest year-round professional theatre company, the Pollard Theatre Company. With an emphasis on creative storytelling to illuminate the shared human experience, Pollard produces six or more plays and musicals annually, enlisting artists across the United States. The annual holiday favorite is A Territorial Christmas Carol.

Guthrie is served by the Guthrie News-Leader newspaper.

Geography 

Guthrie lies along one of the primary corridors into Texas and Mexico, a four-hour drive from the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. The city is in the Frontier Country region in the state’s center. It is approximately 32 miles north of Oklahoma City.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 19.2 square miles, of which 48.4 km2 is land and 0.5 square miles is water. The whole area is 2.81 percent water.

Guthrie is in the Sandstone Hills region of Oklahoma, known for hills of 250 to 400 feet, oak forests, and an ecological area known as the Cross Timbers.

35°51′23″N 97°26′9″W