By CHARLIE CANTRELL, Editor at Large, GTR Newspapers; November 8, 2017
Ever notice how all those downtown streets encapsulated in the inner dispersal loop are slanted precisely 34-degrees off true north? Why are they skewed compared to the rest of Greater Tulsa? To understand, one needs to go back to when Green Country was an uninterrupted expanse of plush prairie grasses and hardwood forest.
After the Civil War, much of the tall grass prairie was known as Indian Territory, and what was destined to become northern Texas, Oklahoma and much of Kansas was opened to railroad right of way by the federal government. Rail lines running south from the transcontinental lines of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and the Union Pacific were needed to transport cattle to growing urban markets like Kansas City and Chicago. Demand for rail lines continued growing as the post civil war cattle industry spread across Green Country.
Click here to read the full story.