Tulsa Fun Facts: Hometown plains lore
Think you really know Tulsa? It's a city with a Gathering Place that could make Central Park blush, Cain's Ballroom that you'll have to two-step to understand, and Art Deco towers that are straight out of Gatsby. Let's run through the facts, stats, and tornado etiquette that showcase what makes Tulsa's oil boom swagger hit turbo.
Shana, Our Local Expert Guiding Your Move
Shana has been living life in Oklahoma for 43 straight years, collecting local shortcuts and moving stories along the way. She has moved more than 10 times across Oklahoma and learned adulthood the hard way when a DIY move ended with a couch wedged on a second story railing and her dignity hanging in the balance. She won that battle... barely, and now smartly chooses to hire professionals that actually know what they're doing. She loves that throughout Oklahoma you can easily run errands, grab groceries, then be five minutes from cow pastures and wide open land. At Snappy Scout, she turns 43 years of red dirt living into actionable wisdom to share what it's really like to move to and live in Oklahoma.
Read moreWritten with local insight from Snappy Scout relocation experts
What Makes Tulsa Tulsa?
The weird, useful, and surprisingly relevant facts that shape everyday life here.
Common nicknames for Tulsa
T-Town, Oil Capital of the World, The 918
Local Reality Check
Flat green prairie land and twisters vs. Art Deco skyline, big parks, Osage Hills.
You're most likely moving from
Dallas, Austin, Oklahoma City, plus California tech expats chasing space.
Strangely large concentration of
Art Deco masterpieces downtown and along Route 66.
Music scene
The Tulsa Sound, Cain's Ballroom, Leon Russell lore at The Church Studio, The Gap Band.
You'll have to see it to believe it
The Center of the Universe acoustic anomaly.
Unique Geography
Arkansas River slicing rolling Osage Hills and Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness.
Tulsa is home to
Bob Dylan Center and Woody Guthrie Center.
Well known for its
Greenwood District legacy and Art Deco skyline.
Fun history fact
Greenwood was known as Black Wall Street before 1921.
Celebrity sightings
Stallone filming Tulsa King, Hanson hometown hangouts, Bill Hader sightings, Ethan Hawke filming The Lowdown.
Noteworthy Census stat
Second largest city in Oklahoma.
Most interesting sub-culture within Tulsa
Tulsa Tough cycling diehards.
Population
2nd largest city in OK, top 50 largest nationwide
Tulsa is roughly the same geographic size as
Colorado Springs
A Local Event Worth Experiencing Once
Mayfest is held downtown in the Tulsa Arts District each year (in May) and brings hundreds of artists and artisans, food trucks, vendors, and musicians to the community to promote knowledge and education.
— Shana Grandstaff
Oklahoma Local Expert
Ready to See If Tulsa Fits You?
Compare cities, check the routes, or head back to the full Tulsa guide for the bigger picture.