TERROR IN OKLAHOMA CITY : Tragedy Brings Unwanted Fame to City

Suddenly, Oklahoma City finds itself with the kind of attention it doesn’t want, or need.

Just as the siege of the Branch Davidian compound put Waco, Tex., on the map two years ago, Wednesday’s bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City has jolted the low-key community into the national limelight.

It’s an oil town and a cow town and home to almost half a million people. But about the only time it makes big headlines is when the state’s sports teams do well.

Still, Jackie Carey, who retired from the City Council last week after a 10-year stint, said Wednesday she found herself proud of how her city responded to the attack that killed at least 31 people.

“I think what I can say about the city is how the people of the city reacted, the number of people who were immediately downtown to help, not stare,” she said. “The city tends to be somewhat apathetic and content with itself. But when people need each other, they’re there.”

It is also the capital of a state that might seem, from the outside, like a throwback to a different time. Until 1984, for instance, Oklahoma was the last state in the nation that had laws on the books that prohibited the sale of liquor by the drink as well as bars.

Oklahoma City is a place where oil has long been the dominant economic engine, followed by the cattle industry.

A number of oil wells dot the grounds of the Capitol and the city, like all of the state, fell on hard times during the energy bust of the 1980s. Like other economies that were hammered by a flagging oil industry, the city, like the rest of the state, has attempted to diversify into other markets.

But Oklahoma City remains a sleepy kind of place, boasting with some pride that it is the home of both the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and the National Softball Hall of Fame. The city is also synonymous with aviation. Virtually all air traffic controllers in the country are trained in Oklahoma City, and all U.S. pilot records are kept there as well. Tinker Air Force Base, a major maintenance and repair facility, is a major part of the city’s economic base.

Oklahoma City was formed during the great land rush of 1889, when thousands of settlers raced for free acreage in what was then the Oklahoma Territory. By nightfall, 10,000 people had erected a tent city near the Santa Fe railroad tracks to form Oklahoma City.

Oklahoma became a state in 1907 and three years later its citizenry voted to move the capital from Guthrie to Oklahoma City.

By California standards, Oklahoma City is a bargain. Good single family homes sell for $50,000 or less, or rent for as low as $350 a month. The city has long lived in the shadow of neighboring Tulsa, which paints itself, with some justification, as the more sophisticated of the two cities.

“Oklahoma City is unique in that it has maintained its frontier mentality, to its detriment,” Carey said.