WBTUS history

Concluded between March and July of 1866, all of the Reconstruction treaties contained provisions granting railroads access to Indian land.

Construction began in 1870 when crews of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway Company (MK&T, or Katy) laid the first track in Indian Territory into the Cherokee Nation south of Chetopa, Kansas.

In 1873 engineers succeeded in permanently opening a channel through the Great Raft.

A territorial organization emerged, and in 1906 at the Oklahoma State Constitutional Convention members secured provisions for a state highway department.

In 1910 crowds gathered in Oklahoma City to witness their first glimpse of a flying machine.

In 1911 the Oklahoma State Highway Department began to function, but the agency received no authority or funds to build and maintain highways.

Beginning in 1916 Clarence B. Douglas, executive director of the Tulsa Chamber of Commerce, worked to secure legislation authorizing studies of the concept by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Muriel H. Wright, "Early Navigation and Commerce Along the Arkansas and Red Rivers in Oklahoma," The Chronicles of Oklahoma 8 (March 1930).

In 1934 Newton R. Graham, a Tulsa banker, succeeded Douglas as the chief proponent of Arkansas River navigation.

By the time they moved their business to Dallas in 1942, Braniff Airways carried passengers to international destinations.

Beginning in 1946 carriers operating in Oklahoma replaced steam engines with diesel-electric locomotives.

In 1947 business leaders from Tulsa and Oklahoma City convinced Gov.

Throughout its existence the state highway department, renamed the Department of Transportation in 1976, endured challenges and enjoyed successes.

Kareta G. Casey, "Wiley H. Post's Around the World Solo Flight," The Chronicles of Oklahoma 55 (Fall 1977).

Carl N. Tyson, The Red River in Southwestern History (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1981).

Donovan Reichenberger, "Wings Over Waynoka," The Chronicles of Oklahoma 65 (Summer 1987).

Bradford Koplowitz, "The Rock Island Line is a Mighty Good Line—to Research," The Chronicles of Oklahoma 66 (Summer 1988).

Keith Tolman, "Printing Ink and Flyingwires: Oklahoma Journalism and the Promotion of Aviation," The Chronicles of Oklahoma 72 (Spring 1994).