Where and what is Oklahoma? Is it semi-arid or subtropical; forested or treeless? Do classic novelists and Hollywood movies get it right?

Map of the State of Oklahoma, USA. Nations Online Project.

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Is Oklahoma your home state, too?

I grew up in Oklahoma.  For me, it’s my home even when I’m not able to live there and always wins first place on my map. 
 
Perhaps you rank your home state as Number 1 on your map.  Where do you rank Oklahoma, and why?
 
Out in the wide-open spaces?

​After I left Oklahoma to join the Army and see the world, I met many Americans with few, if any, accurate conceptions about my favorite state.  Some people pegged it as Southern, others guessed Midwestern. The closest most non-Okies could get is “it's somewhere out in the wide-open spaces.” 
 
The Dustbowl, tornados, and flat terrain might feature in their mental image along with oil and Indians.  About all they really knew was the wonderful song “Oklahoma!” from the Rogers and Hammerstein musical of the same name.  
 
I like Oklahoma’s wide-open spaces so much that I set my novel, Cloud County Persuasion, in that great state.  My research on the 1940s and 50s reminded me of a few of the reasons why the location and geography of the “Sooner” state is sometimes misconstrued or just dead wrong.

Miss Ferber and Mr. Steinbeck. 
 
Don’t believe that John Steinbeck got the Oklahoma setting right in his Pulitzer prizewinning novel, The Grapes of Wrath (1939).  Edna Ferber didn’t hit the target either in her popular novel, Cimarron (1929).  The physical and historical pictures they drew made Oklahomans of the day cringe.  
  
Telling what happened in their state, good and bad, works for Oklahomans.  But getting things wrong can wreak havoc, particularly when a popular source creates them out of thin air.   
 
John Steinbeck (1902-1968) is still read and admired today for the compassionate story he told of migrant workers in California during the Great Depression of the 1930s.   However…

• Don’t believe that the whole state of Oklahoma was in the Dustbowl.  Only the Panhandle and a small adjoining area suffered that calamity.

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• Don’t believe that the ancestors of the fictional Tom Joad would have had to fight and kill Native Americans in order to wrestle a homestead from the frontier.  The Joad family lived around Sallisaw in Sequoya County in northeastern Oklahoma where Cherokees settled after the end of the tragic Trail of Tears.

 

• Don’t believe that a homesteader farming in what is now Oklahoma during the first days of white settlement could have made forty acres feed the family.  

 

• The 1940 film version of The Grapes of Wrath won Oscars for best director and best actress and was nominated for five others.  https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-grapes-of-wrath-1940
  • In its day, the movie received accolades as the best American film.   Today, it still receives kudos as one of the best.
  • Twentieth Century-Fox filmed the Joad family’s Oklahoma farm on a studio set.  

 
Edna Ferber (1885-1968), who had won a Pulitzer prize in 1925 for her novel So Big, countered complaints about errors in her novel Cimarron (1929) by explaining her goal was not to render the exact setting.   

• Instead, she attempted to capture the spirit of the place that, during the course of the novel, becomes the forty-sixth state in the union.  

 

• Ferber’s fictional tale was well-received by the American public. 
  • An example of her mayhem with the setting is her description of the Land Run of April 22, 1889.  Instead of the actual spring green of the never plowed prairie, clear blue skies, mild temperatures, and creeks full of water, she concocted scorching heat, dust, dirt, and burning prairie.
  • Ferber also didn’t space the runners along a 250-mile border as they were that day, but rather crammed them into dense crowds.  
  • The 1931 film version of Cimarron won the Oscar for Best Picture.  
  • RKO filmed the movie in southern California.

What's the Hollywood Version?
 
​Not every American has the opportunity to visit each of the fifty states in the USA.  And Hollywood production companies don’t always have the chance to film on location.   

​Two classic action Westerns and one film version of an ever-popular musical provide more examples of how non-Oklahomans might have gathered misconceptions about the Oklahoma terrain.  
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• The Oklahoma Kid, 1939, was filmed in California.
• Red River, 1948, was filmed in Arizona.
• Oklahoma!, 1955, won two Oscars and was filmed in Arizona.

What does the terrain of Oklahoma really look like?

Oklahoma has twelve ecoregions.

The Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department notes that Oklahoma has twelve ecoregions.  Only four states have more than ten ecoregions. www.travelok.com/article_page/oklahomasdiverseecoregions. 

Since Oklahoma covers approximately 69,919 square miles, there's plenty of room for plains, prairies, mountains (yes, mountains), forests, and even cypress swamps.  

The twelve ecoregions are:

1. Western High Plains
2. Southwestern Tablelands
3. Central Great Plains
4. Tallgrass Prairie
5. Crosstimbers
6. East Central Texas Plains
7. Caves and Prairie
8. Ozark Highlands
9. Ozark Forest
10. Hardwood Forest
11. Ouachita Mountains
12. Cypress Swamps and Forest

Approximately 28% of the land of Oklahoma is forested.  That's more than 12 million acres.
                                                                                      Oklahoma Forestry Services

Lynne at Talimena Scenic Drive, Ouachita National Forest, Oklahoma, 2009.

What's the climate like?

​The climate of Oklahoma is equally diverse, ranging from humid subtropical in the east to semi-arid. climate.ok.gov/index.php/site/page/climate_of_oklahoma.   

Drought is a normal part of the climate cycle in Oklahoma and can occur for periods of a few months up to several years.  
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• Summers can be quite hot.  Bring your sunscreen, and enjoy water sports on the state's many reservoirs.
• Winters can be cold, but extreme cold is infrequent and rarely lasts more than a few days.
• Autumn is especially pleasant. 
• Spring hosts Tornado Season, which in Oklahoma runs generally from May to early June.     ​

The land is grand.  

​The variety in Oklahoma’s terrain is a pleasure to discover and enjoy.  I hope that if you have not already become acquainted with the state, you will be able to do so in the future.
 
By the way, not one of the seventy-seven counties in Oklahoma is named Cloud County.  I chose a fictitious name for my novel, ​Cloud County Persuasion.
 
Until next time, best wishes and good reading! 

Notes:

1. Map of the State of Oklahoma, USA.  The Nations Online Project states, "You are free to use this map for educational purposes (fair use).  Please refer to the Nations Online Project.  www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/map/USA/oklahoma_map.htm
2. Oklahoma Forestry Services is a Division of the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry.