h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Oklahoma-USA - A61939551
Author: Shagbark - U170775

The state of Oklahoma seemed to be one of three states with no articles so I wrote one.

Pl;ease note-if you view this in Brunel you will find links to maps at the end of the article. Some of the other skins omit these.

Hi Shagbark

Quick glance (way past my bedtime)

The "notables" section:

Will Rogers (1879-1935)Political Humorist - needs a space after the close-bracket

Oral Roberts (1918-2009)TeleEvangelist - needs a space after the close-bracket

Mickey Mantle (1931-1995 )Baseball Player - needs a space after the close-bracket and the gap before the close-bracket deleting


James Garner (1928- )Actor
Chuck Norris(1940- )Actor
Reba McEntire(1955- )Actress
Ron Howard (1954- )Movie Director, Actor

Those last four people are still alive. It's not the correct way to leave a gap for their date of death, like you're waiting for them to die so you can fill in the gap.

Display them thus:

James Garner (born 1928) Actor
Chuck Norris(born 1940) Actor
Reba McEntire(born 1955) Actress
Ron Howard (born 1954) Movie Director, Actor

with appropriate gaps:

James Garner (born 1928) Actor
Chuck Norris (born 1940) Actor
Reba McEntire (born 1955) Actress
Ron Howard (born 1954) Movie Director, Actor

20 Jan first update in PR

I can see that you have spent a good deal of time researching the many facts and pieces of information about the state. Can I suggest that you write a bit more about the history and geography? - as this will be of great interest to us British people. We may not know where Kansas and other states are either, so you should say that Oklahoma is in the mid west (? ) Is this where the so-called bible belt is?

I think I'd like to see some more stuff on the history of the 19th Century. You may not realise, but the only thing I know about Oklahoma is taken from the musical of the same name.

I'd like to see it move a bit away from being a list of facts. I'm sure it is a very interesting place with some colourful things you could write about.

Good luck with it!

I Included the following to give a better idea where the state is.

"This landlocked mid-western state has neither the high Rocky Mountain peaks of Colorado nor the coastal waters of Louisiana yet it is influenced by both.The geographic center is eight miles north of Oklahoma City and is located at Lattitude 35° 32.2'N, Longitude 97° 39.6'W."
The term "Bible Belt" is somewhat of a mis-nomer.
25 years ago I spent some time in Texas which is supposed to be the heart of the "Bible belt" and already by then the term was out-dated.

(I had originally put in a link to a page that placed it on the N.American continent but noticed (after the fact) that it was copy-righted material and they were not giving blanket aproval to link to their page so I removed it.
When I did the article on Connecticut their was someone who actually lived there that helped with the kind of info you are looking for.
But for the record I have never lived in Connecticut or Oklahoma and I only visited Tulsa once for a few hours.

Thank you Shagbark!

A quote from the "State of the City" addrerss by Mayor vir Bernero
Lansing,MI
"We’ve taken some heavy blows, but we haven’t buckled and we haven’t broken, because we’re
tough Michiganders.
If we get knocked down, we get back up. We get back to work, because that’s who we are. We
are fighters. We are survivors.
Most of all, we are builders – each one of us – and we each have something to contribute to
building a more prosperous future."
so here I am- a tough michigander
building the guide - one article at a time.
This week it is Oklahoma- Next week perhaps somewhere else.

I meant to say Virg' Bernero
http://www.lansingmi.gov/mayor/

The beginning in particular is a bit Wiki. Lots of facts and figures without giving too much of a flavour of the place. Difficult for you to fix that without being an Oklahoman though.



As I understand it, Sooner is a general nickname for an Oklahoman. Is that true?



"The first oil in Oklahoma was accidentally found in 1859." Accidently? How so?



"Between 1934 and 1941 a severe drought hit the region and much of it was turned into a dust bowl. Millions of acres in several states including Oklahoma lost much of its top soil before the drought ended."

Were the characters in The Grapes of Wrath from Oklahoma? That sounds like their situation. If so, that would be worth a mention.



Are there any famous Oklahoma sports teams? What about Oklahoma food, like Philadelphia has cheese steaks?



Though it is not incorrect to say that Reba McEntire is an actress, she is more widely known as a country singer - she's even nicknamed 'the Queen of Country'. On that subject, Carrie Underwood is from Oklahoma too.

I should say that I think it's great you're doing this entry - I think it's a real shame we don't have entries on all of the states.

well unbeknownst to me I am not the only one doing an article on Oklahoma.

A61644413

maybe I should go introduce myself.

As to the first oil well
a chronicle by BY MURIEL H. WRIGHT
said they had a salt making company and
it was a deep brine well that hit oil.
Another history page mentioned that this oil was used for
oil lamps.

Re: post 14, yes, I think you should, perhaps at the EGWW thread? You two working together would provide us with a fantastic entry on Oklahoma.

I like your motto: <>

Thanks for writing this, Shagbark. There's lots of useful information in there, but it is a bit too much like a list of facts at the moment.

You could expand the history part by explaining about the dust bowl - it wasn't just a drought; it was caused by the farmers planting the wrong sorts of crops, or overgrazing or something. The Native Americans had used the land for thousands of years without destroying it. Within a hundred years of the "white man" arriving, the land was destroyed with the soil blowing away to expose bedrock. A paragraph on this would flesh the article out nicely.

You could describe the shape of the state: roughly rectangular, with the southern border wiggly due to be along a river, and with the thin rectangular "pan-handle" attached at the northwest corner. Is there a reason for the pan-handle?

I think the fact that Oklahoma is almost entirely divided into tiny squares, each one managed separately from the ones around it, is worth mentioning. Look at aerial photographs to see what I mean. It's not the only state that does this, but it's certainly a feature which is unusual to non-Americans. What size are the squares? Are they 1 mile along the side?

that is probably a product of US surveying methods.
The entire US has counties broken up into townships which are broken up into 1 MI square sectors
So a normal legal description of land a farmer holds would read
The NW 1/4 of Sector 27 Township 27N 35E of such and such county.
Using Google earth what surprises me is how many farms are plowed in a circle. One sees mile after mile of circular fields.

since there is another entry in the writers workshop now
A61644413
I decided to remove this from Peer review for a couple months.