Oklahoma intelligence

[Martinjmpr]

I feel like I can contribute to this thread:

I was born in Germany (military brat) but my earliest memories are of NE Oklahoma (circa 1964 - 65.) My mother was born and raised in a very small town about 45 miles NW of Tulsa, called Barnsdall. We lived there until 1967 and then moved to the Washington DC suburbs to follow my dad's job (he was a civilian historian for the Army.)

We had family in Barnsdall until my grandfather died in 1982 so I'm pretty familiar with the area. All through the late 60s and through the 70s we would go back every year or so to visit family. When we moved to Colorado in 1972 we were a long day's drive from Barnsdall and went more frequently until my grandfather died in 1982. I also periodically passed through there in 1984, 1986 and again in 2000, 2005 and 2014.

So I was able to see the town change (and decline) over about a 30+ year period.

That decline was significant: I can clearly remember visiting Barnsdall in the early 1970's and there were, for example, a bank (my grandfather was the bank president until he retired), 3 grocery stores, a lumber yard, a 5 - and - 10 store, a soda fountain, an OTASCO (Oklahoma Tire and Supply Company - think of Murdoch's or Tractor Supply but in a small town storefront) and at least two car dealerships. There was a Western Boot and Hat company, a small hamburger stand called Andy's that made the best burgers (seriously!), a public library (my mother worked there), an elementary school, a Junior high/high school and a small fairground. The railroad tracks ran right through the middle of town and the biggest employer was the local wax factory.

But when my wife and I passed through there in 2014, there were NO grocery stores, one restaurant (that was closed on Sunday), two gas stations, and the main street was pretty much a ghost town of abandoned shops. There was a Dollar General store (of course!) on the edge of town but other than that if you needed groceries you drove to Pawhuska (14 miles West) or Bartlesville (18 miles North.) The wax factory was still there but barely working. The railroad even removed the tracks going through town.

But getting back to topic: WRT Oklahoma, there are pros and cons.

Pros: Beautiful area (the Osage Hills and surrounding area are heavily forested and full of wild game.) Mild winters (we would get snow once every 4 - 5 years.) Tornadoes were actually pretty rare in that part of OK, and due to the hills they didn't do much damage (tornadoes do more damage on flat, treeless plains than in forested hills.)

DIRT cheap housing. As in, a 3 br/2 ba house that would run you north of $400k in the metro area can often be found for $100k or a little more. You can afford to be choosy.

Politically very conservative, reasonably lax gun laws. Church parking lots are full on Sundays and many businesses are closed.

CONS: Well, it's Oklahoma. Cost of living is low so that means salaries are low too. Infrastructure can be in bad shape (roads, sidewalks, street lighting, bridges, ETC.) Education levels are generally low in much of the state so finding competent technical help might be a challenge, depending on what it is you're trying to do. Summers can be blistering hot and humid. Critters like chiggers and termites (which we generally don't have to worry about in Colorado) are very common there, so be aware of that.

Public land is not common (although there are plenty of places to fish at reservoirs, creeks, even bridges.) Having said that, if you want to hunt it's usually not difficult to get a land owner to let you hunt on his property. I know my dad and granddad loved both the hunting and (especially) the fishing. Lots of lakes, and it seems like every other house has a boat in the driveway.

If you want small-city amenities like a grocery store but don't want to live in Tulsa (which I can't blame you) you could consider Bartlesville. Bartlesville is a small city (HQ of the Phillips Petroleum company) that has all the things you'd want in a town but not the big city issues of Tulsa. Home prices are pretty low too.

[Bailey Guns]

^^ Yeah...it's really depressing to see the empty store fronts in the small towns. That's just a sign of the changing times, I think.

[Gman]

"Oklahoma" and "Intelligence" should never be used in the same proximity of each other.....

First wife's family was in Tulsa. I kind of liked the area, other than the heat and humidity. One of the things I saw mentioned is you don't want to live where the tweakers are. I never heard a good thing mentioned about Broken Arrow.

[fitz19d]

Interesting you say that about broken arrow, believe that's where a coworker bought a huge nice property.

North certainly sounds nice, like i said i loved some i looked at that looked heavily shaded plots.

[BPTactical]

We have always enjoyed the TV show "The First 48". We were watching a few back to back episodes on Thanksgiving or something and my youngest made a profound statement about Tulsa.
"It's where people go to die"

[KevDen2005]

Fun fact. Double wides are less likely to blow away than single wides.

That's the basis of my survival knowledge

[ray1970]

That's the basis of my survival knowledge

My assumption could be overly inaccurate though. I mean a double wide, although larger and heavier than a single wide, does have twice the surface area so maybe the wind survivability is pretty much a wash between the two. Fun to speculate though.

[KevDen2005]

My assumption could be overly inaccurate though. I mean a double wide, although larger and heavier than a single wide, does have twice the surface area so maybe the wind survivability is pretty much a wash between the two. Fun to speculate though.

keep in mind the likelihood is that the doublewide can accommodate more overweight people than the single

[rondog]

So much Oklahoma hatin' here, y'all must be off yer meds. C'mon, this ain't West Virginia we're talkin' about fer cryin' out loud.....

[Oscar77]

Interesting you say that about broken arrow, believe that's where a coworker bought a huge nice property.

North certainly sounds nice, like i said i loved some i looked at that looked heavily shaded plots.

Ok...... ALOT of joking here.....
TLDR: I'm about to retire from here (Denver) and eventually go to Tulsa, OK where we just bought land.
My Wife is from there and so family etc are the draw.

We had been looking on the OKC/Edmond area and Tulsa-ish.

Around OKC, houses/land seem to sell at a quick pace, but the prices themselves are reasonable.
We liked the Edmond area since we'd been there several times.

Tulsa area:
We looked around (so spent about a week total, just looking around, looking at schools, crime rates etc).
South (Bixby) and East (Broken Arrow) are the "hot spots" it seems.
(As in West- Sand Springs- you'll be on 48 hours shortly).

We ended up buying 80 acres just outside Bixby, since we arent sure EXACTLY when we'll move.
I'm in the Air Guard and so Tulsa airport is where I'd drill.
From just south of Bixby to Tulsa International (Extreme North) is 45 minutes........ so drive times are good.

Downtown Tulsa is downtown anywhere right now ....... a shit hole.
So is OKC........ but have you been to Denver lately????

My suggestion is what we did.... drive around and just look around.
Look at all the stats you can find........
ie. Bixby Property taxes have jumped up, but we drove thru and saw the new schools, roads etc.