Oklahoma City was first settled on April 22, 1889, when the area known as the "unassigned lands" (that is, land in Indian territory that had not been assigned to any tribes) was opened for settlement in an event known as "The Land Run.
" Roughly 10,000 homesteaders settled the area now known as Oklahoma City, and within 10 years the population had easily doubled.
By the time Oklahoma was admitted to the Union in 1907, Oklahoma City had supplanted Guthrie, the territorial capital, as the population center and commercial hub of the new state.
Thanks to political and commercial savvy of such early city leaders as John Shartel, Anton Classen and Henry Overholser, Oklahoma City had become an attractive Victorian city with an efficient trolley system, a major regional commercial center, a railway hub and had attracted several large meat packing plants along with other industry.
The city, now with a population of 64,000, put in a petition to become the new state capital.
A popular vote was held, with Governor Charles N.
Haskell as one of the strongest advocates for Oklahoma City's candidacy, which Oklahoma City won.
The Oklahoma State Capitol was established at NE 23rd street and Lincoln Boulevard.
The capitol was long known for its lack of a dome, which could not be added by the time the building was completed in 1919 due to lack of funds.
A dome was finally added to the building in 2002.
With an estimated 3.
6 million residents in 2007 and a land area of 68,667 square miles, Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state.
The state's name is derived from the Choctaw words okla and humma, meaning "red people", and is known informally by its nickname, The Sooner State.