History of Guthrie
At Noon on April 22, 1889, cannons resounded around a 2 million acre section of Indian Territory, launching (President Benjamin) : Harrison 's Hoss Race." During the next six hours, about 10,000 people settled in what became the capital of the new Territory of Oklahoma ... Guthrie. Born from prairie grass in the morning to one of the nation's largest cities west of the Mississippi River in only six hours, Guthrie was truly a Magic City .
Within only months Guthrie became 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. By 1907, when Guthrie became the capital of the new state of Oklahoma , it looked much as though it had been lifted out of a more established state on the east coast.
Statehood, however, meant political control would move from the national level to state government, Guthrie, without the protective arm of the federal government and now cast into a hostile political climate, fought and lost her battle to retain the capital only three short years later, In the middle of the night, on June 11, 1910, the state seal was moved to Oklahoma City, and along with it, Guthrie's entire economic base. She soon slipped into an economic sleep lasting seventy years.
But Guthrie had been constructed for perpetuity in a manner befitting a capital city. Today, through careful restoration, a rich architectural legacy has been preserved in all its grandeur. Guthrie's magic has returned! It is now the largest Historic District in the United States .
The Historic District contains 2,169 buildings, 1,400 acres and 400 city blocks. Now you can experience the charm of this Territorial city which embodies the essence of the era and the spirit of Oklahoma
A National
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