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Oklahoma City has always been a crossroads. From its beginning to its present status as the crossroads of America, Oklahoma City has capitalized on its strategic central location.

Oklahoma City was the first city born in a day when on April 22, 1889, some 50,000 settlers swarmed into the 2 million acre "Unassigned Lands" of central Oklahoma Territory. A tent city sprouted as 10,000 homesteaders staked their claims near the three largest railways in the Southwest.

This birth gave Oklahoma City an instant Western heritage, as it was almost the last of the free land that people moved west to settle. Part of that heritage was plenty of land. In fact, for many years the city was the largest in land area in the United States. Oklahoma has cultivated its place as the centrally located Western heritage center by hosting more horse related shows and competitions each year than any other city in the world. Businessmen and farmer stockmen found Oklahoma City's location along the North Canadian River strategic and its railroad service a lifeline to the rest of the country. Oklahoma City Stockyards and its business district still maintain a high profile as a tourist destination and unofficial Western heritage center in modern Oklahoma City, and the daily Stockyards cattle auctions still make it the largest stocker/feeder market in the world.

The National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center is the official steward of that western heritage. After a recent expansion, it boasts of housing the largest collection of Western Art and Americana west of the Smithsonian.

In 1928 Oklahoma City was discovered to be floating on a pool of oil. The state capital is the only state capital in the country with an active oil well on the property. The city's economy has benefited from its role as a source of the oil field equipment for many of the largest producing fields in America.

As valuable as oil, water has played a vital role in the growth of Oklahoma City. A large system of manmade reservoirs and lakes was built by early civic leaders with vision. Oklahoma City has grown to be the twenty-ninth largest city in America, supporting one million residents.

Recent civic leaders have a new vision of growth for the city, and the taxpayer support is a duplication of the sudden start to success in 1889. In 1993 residents approved the most comprehensive and diverse single-ballot sports, entertainment, education, cultural, convention and recreation revitalization and building project in United States' history. Reaching a crossroads on the road to the 21st century, Oklahoma Cityans are poised to spend $263 million moving in the right direction for growth and civic pride. Eight projects, including two new sports venues, will be completed and paid for by the end of the century to help propel Oklahoma to a second 100 years of growth and prosperity.