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| Carnegie Library, Guthrie, Oklahoma |
So today I’m back in Oklahoma, racing along the plain, scoping out the ‘available’ land and finally pitching my tent and staking a lot near the railroad tracks in Guthrie, Oklahoma. It is April 11, 1889. According to Benjamin Harrison’s land run plan, otherwise know as finders keepers, or first come, first serve, I am now a landowner and in Guthrie. 9,999 other adventurous settlers also arrived on that same afternoon. A reporter for Harper’s Weekly wrote, “Unlike Rome, the city of Guthrie was built in a day.”
Before long the ambitious settlers moved out of their tents and started building a model city. Within months Guthrie was know as the “queen of the prairie” and began the work that would result in a picture perfect Victorian downtown made up of smart stone and brick buildings and offered city water, electricity and even underground carriage parking - fancy. Two years after the land run and tent city, Guthrie opened their own, rather elaborate, Carnegie Library.
The Old Carnegie Library still stands in Guthrie but has been re-purposed as the Oklahoma Territorial Museum. The Carnegie Foundation was not all that impressed by the building’s fancy dome or ornamental fireplace - a little high and mighty, in their opinion, but Guthrie had an image to uphold and stuck to their fancy vision. The legacy is a classically beautiful building that houses artifacts, paitings and photographs from Oklahoma’s wild and crazy past.
A year later Oklahoma became an official territory of the United States and Guthrie became the capital. Guthrie grew and prospered for the next 16 years when Oklahoma became the 46th state and Guthrie served as its capital. The first state governor was sworn in on the steps of the stately Carnegie Library. Guthrie is now the largest urban historic district in the country and a National Historic Landmark, but only thanks to Oklahoma City.
Oklahoma City usurped Guthrie as the state capital in 1910 in a stealthy midnight operation conducted by the governor. He actually grabbed the state seal and rode off in the night to Oklahoma City - when everyone woke up in the morning, presto - a new capital. But here is the very cool thing about this unconventional change of government...because everyone started going to Oklahoma City, Guthrie was preserved, as a living time capsule. It is probably because of the exodus to Oklahoma City that the Carnegie Library and the downtown center have not been demolished. They left behind a lovely Victorian enclave that welcomes tourists and historians.
The dark underbelly of the story was the effect of settlement on the Native American Tribes in Oklahoma. The National Park Service explains, “In the tents and shanties that sheltered all the new citizens of Oklahoma,
that first night on their new lands must have been simply divine. For the American Indians of the Five Civilized Tribes - who thought they had a permanent home in Oklahoma - that same night must have been full of sadness, anger, and despair.” A perfect example of win-lose thinking.
Before long the ambitious settlers moved out of their tents and started building a model city. Within months Guthrie was know as the “queen of the prairie” and began the work that would result in a picture perfect Victorian downtown made up of smart stone and brick buildings and offered city water, electricity and even underground carriage parking - fancy. Two years after the land run and tent city, Guthrie opened their own, rather elaborate, Carnegie Library.
The Old Carnegie Library still stands in Guthrie but has been re-purposed as the Oklahoma Territorial Museum. The Carnegie Foundation was not all that impressed by the building’s fancy dome or ornamental fireplace - a little high and mighty, in their opinion, but Guthrie had an image to uphold and stuck to their fancy vision. The legacy is a classically beautiful building that houses artifacts, paitings and photographs from Oklahoma’s wild and crazy past.
A year later Oklahoma became an official territory of the United States and Guthrie became the capital. Guthrie grew and prospered for the next 16 years when Oklahoma became the 46th state and Guthrie served as its capital. The first state governor was sworn in on the steps of the stately Carnegie Library. Guthrie is now the largest urban historic district in the country and a National Historic Landmark, but only thanks to Oklahoma City.
Oklahoma City usurped Guthrie as the state capital in 1910 in a stealthy midnight operation conducted by the governor. He actually grabbed the state seal and rode off in the night to Oklahoma City - when everyone woke up in the morning, presto - a new capital. But here is the very cool thing about this unconventional change of government...because everyone started going to Oklahoma City, Guthrie was preserved, as a living time capsule. It is probably because of the exodus to Oklahoma City that the Carnegie Library and the downtown center have not been demolished. They left behind a lovely Victorian enclave that welcomes tourists and historians.
The dark underbelly of the story was the effect of settlement on the Native American Tribes in Oklahoma. The National Park Service explains, “In the tents and shanties that sheltered all the new citizens of Oklahoma,
that first night on their new lands must have been simply divine. For the American Indians of the Five Civilized Tribes - who thought they had a permanent home in Oklahoma - that same night must have been full of sadness, anger, and despair.” A perfect example of win-lose thinking.
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