Tulsa began as a Muskogee (Creek) settlement, and hence our name of “Tulsey”. As White immigrants overtook in population the original Muskogee Creek settlers, we evolved into a small but insignificant cattle town.

The town’s first big break came with the arrival of the railroad. Without the railroad we never could have grown beyond our small town status. Everything that followed in our history was made possible by the railroad.

Its second big break …Tulsa's giant big break… came when oil was discovered in huge quantities in the Glen Pool. Enterprising civic leaders in Tulsa capitalized on the economic opportunities that the oil discovery presented in ways that outpaced other area towns, and as other big fields were developed in Oklahoma in the wake of the Glen Pool discovery we were on our way to becoming the center of the global oil industry, The Oil Capital of the World.

We reached our peak as a petroleum center in the 1920’s and 1930’s. The rise was swift, but by the late 1950’s a slow decline had begin in Tulsa’s oil fortunes. For thirty or forty glorious years we enjoyed a remarkable prosperity as a city, and the experiences and influences of that period continue to culturally mark us today.

In these articles we look around us for footprints left behind by the forces that created our contemporary culture, and accompany us as we observe today's Tulsa ...and as we seek to project the future and imagine what our "City of Tomorrow" will be.

We look to the past to learn how we came to be city we are today. The influence of our past is felt in our values, character, and culture. Our past is also visible in the iconic architectural landmarks of the city. Our past is still present.

Tulsa was a Creek settlement first, then a cowtown, and then a boomtown. By the end of the 1920s we had become a mature city with an established culture and character that still describes much of who we are.

All of these changes happened quickly. Lots of people from lots of places, creating a new culture, a “Tulsa” culture that was distinctly defining of our own city.

By the late 1930s we were recognized as the Oil Capital of the World, and by the 1950s we began the slow process of transitioning to greater economic diversity. Oil finds in other parts of the country were eclipsing Oklahoma’s role in the industry, and by the 1970s we were clearly entering the modern era of our city’s history: we were settling into a new role, but one still not yet fully defined.

What lessons can we learn from our past? This is one of the questions we will explore in our articles. Knowing our past, we will understand our present and how we came to be who we are today.

We also will examine how our patters of urban living have changed over the years, and what this means for our quality of life. And, obviously, we are interested in discovering clues that will hint at the future ahead of us.

Here are the primary types of files included in the Tulsa Studies:

We have two videos included at the time of this writing. One is an undated film produced by the United States information agency for use abroad to show the lives of average Americans, but focused on Tulsa. A screen capture from the film is shown above. It appears the film was made in 1949 or 1950, but this estimate is based simply on the automobiles that I see in the street. For our purposes, it serves as a wonderful portrayal of daily life in our city 75 years ago (at least among the economically comfortable part of out population). Much has changed since then, many things for the better ...but we also see in this film some aspects of community life that have been lost.

Another film is the movie "Tulsa", released by MGM studios in 1949. Whether the film was an artistic success or not is a matter of individual taste, but it was not a box office success. The one thing that the movie did very well is captured the spirit of Tulsa during the oil boom years, and for this reason it is definitly worth seeing. The producer of the movie was Walter Wanger. His films tended to have a left leaning bias, and indeed this picture had two important themes that were way ahead of their time: environmentalism and feminism. Neither of these terms would have been recognized by the average Tulsan of the era.

Not yet included, but an important future part of our Tulsa studies, will be audio recordings in podcast format that discuss Tulsa, past, present, and future.

Our primary content will focus on stories about Tulsa history and the relevance of our history to our modern city and our city's culture. The photo above of the Rose Garden sign is from one of the articles that refers to our history and the changing character of Tulsa. The article about the heritage of the oilman is another example, and audio podcasts will have this as an important theme as we include interviews with historians and commentators. Tulsa is a changing place, as all cities are, and another kind of storytelling is based on contemporary observations. There are already several articles, primarily narrated photo collections, of this style.

Audio recordings in podcast format will also be used for discussion.