Oklahoma's FIRST Capital - Guthrie, OK - First of its Kind on Waymarking.com

This colorful welcome sign can be found on the north side of Highway 33 as you enter Guthrie from the east off of I-35.


Welcome to Historic Guthrie
A Garden Club City
Oklahoma's First Capital/Guthrie


From wikipedia:

Guthrie originated in 1887 as a railroad station called Deer Creek on the Southern Kansas Railway (later acquired by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway) from the Kansas–Oklahoma border to Purcell. The name was later changed to Guthrie, named for jurist John Guthrie of Topeka, Kansas. A post office was established on April 4, 1889. At noon on April 22, 1889, cannons resounded at a 2-million acre (8,100 km²) section of Indian Territory, launching president Benjamin Harrison's "Hoss Race" or Land Run of 1889. During the next six hours, about 10,000 people settled in what became the capital of the new Territory of Oklahoma. Within months, Guthrie became a modern brick and stone "Queen of the Prairie" with municipal water, electricity, a mass transit system, and underground parking garages for horses and carriages. Hobart Johnstone Whitley, also known as HJ and the Father of Hollywood, was the first president of the Guthrie Chamber of Commerce. Whitley built the first brick block building in the territory for his National Loan & Trust Company. He was asked by the local people to be the first Governor of Oklahoma. Whitley traveled to Washington, D.C. where he persuaded the U.S. Congress to allow Guthrie to be the new capital of the state of Oklahoma. This was specified in the 1906 Oklahoma Enabling Act that established certain requirements for the new state constitution. By 1907, when Guthrie became the capital, it looked like a well established Eastern city.

Guthrie prospered briefly as the administrative center of the territory, but was eclipsed in economic influence by Oklahoma City early in the 20th century. Oklahoma City had managed to become a major junction for several railroads and had attracted a major industry in the form of meat packing. Oklahoma City business leaders began campaigning soon after statehood to make Oklahoma City the new state capital, and in 1910 a special election was held to determine the location of the state capital. 96,488 votes were cast for Oklahoma City; 31,031 for Guthrie; and 8,382 for Shawnee. Governor Charles N. Haskell, who was in Tulsa on the day of the election, ordered his secretary W.B. Anthony to have Oklahoma Secretary of State Bill Cross obtain the state seal and transport it to Oklahoma City despite having been served a restraining order by Logan County Sheriff John Mahoney blocking the transfer. Anthony obtained written authorization from Cross, retrieved the seal from the Logan County courthouse, and delivered it to Oklahoma City.

After the move of the capital, Guthrie began to dwindle in size and soon lost its status as Oklahoma's second largest city, first to Muskogee, then later to Tulsa. The move was upheld by the Oklahoma Supreme Court on February 9, 1911, and by the United States Supreme Court in 1911.

Guthrie was designated a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service in 1999.

FIRST - Classification Variable: Place or Location Date of FIRST: 11/16/1907 More Information - Web URL: [Web Link]

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