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70 free Oklahoma trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
61 free Oklahoma trivia questions with answers. Sixty-one questions on Oklahoma, the state that filled with 50,000 people in a single afternoon in 1889 and has been surprising outsiders ever since. The set covers how the state got its name and why it was the 46th to join, the Five Tribes and the Trail of Tears, the panhandle that Texas gave away, the oil strikes that made Tulsa rich and put derricks on the capitol lawn, the Dust Bowl and the Joads, and the darker chapters of Greenwood in 1921 and the Murrah Building in 1995. There is plenty of lighter material too: the first parking meter and the first shopping cart, a Route 66 whale, a golden oil worker taller than most buildings, the state meal that runs to a dozen dishes, a tornado that set a world wind-speed record, and the people Oklahoma produced, from Will Rogers and Woody Guthrie to Mickey Mantle, Jim Thorpe, Garth Brooks and the Thunder. It opens easy and works up to questions for people who know which county touches four other states. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and official sources, and the page used is shown under each explanation. Play it solo or use it as a ready-made state round.
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Q 01Oklahoma joined the Union in 1907 as which numbered state?
46th
President Theodore Roosevelt signed the proclamation on November 16, 1907, merging Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory into a single state.
Q 02The name Oklahoma comes from two words in which Native American language?
Choctaw
Okla means 'people' and humma translates as 'red', so the state's name is usually rendered as 'red people'.
Q 03Oklahoma's official nickname comes from settlers who did what during the land openings?
Crossed into the territory before the legal start time
The rule-breakers hid on the unoccupied land and popped up at the legal moment to grab the choicest homesteads, and the insult eventually became the state's badge.
Q 04The Land Rush of 1889 opened the Unassigned Lands at high noon on which date?
April 22
An estimated 50,000 people lined up for two million acres, and by nightfall Oklahoma City and Guthrie each had around 10,000 residents.
Q 05Roughly how many people were lined up at the start of the Land Rush of 1889?
50,000
Under the Homestead Act each settler could claim up to 160 acres, provided they lived on the land and improved it.
Q 06Which 1835 agreement gave the Cherokee two years to move to Indian Territory before removal?
New Echota
Most Cherokee refused to recognise it, and roughly a quarter of those who made the trek west did not survive it.
Q 07Approximately how many Cherokees died on the forced march to what is now Oklahoma?
4,000
The Treaty of New Echota, signed December 29, 1835, had given the Cherokee two years to move west; most refused and were driven out by the army in 1838.
Q 08Which president signed the 1830 Indian Removal Act that sent the southeastern tribes to Indian Territory?
Andrew Jackson
The law provided the legal framework for the removals; the actual Cherokee march took place under his successor in 1838.
Q 09In 1905 Indian Territory leaders drafted a constitution for a state to be named after which man?
Sequoyah
The convention met in Muskogee, but Roosevelt wanted a single state and Congress folded both territories into Oklahoma two years later.
Q 10Oklahoma's capital moved from Guthrie to Oklahoma City after a popular vote in which year?
1910
Democrats wanted out of what they saw as a Republican stronghold; the state seal was famously spirited away to Oklahoma City overnight.
Q 11Which state gave up the future Oklahoma Panhandle so slavery could stay legal within its borders?
Texas
Federal law barred slavery north of 36°30', so the strip was surrendered in the Compromise of 1850 and sat as 'No Man's Land' with no owner until 1890.
Q 12Which Oklahoma county is the only one in the United States that borders four different states?
Cimarron
It touches four neighbouring states at once, and it also holds Black Mesa, the highest point in Oklahoma.
Q 13Black Mesa, Oklahoma's highest point, rises to roughly what elevation?
5,000 feet
It sits in the far northwest corner of the panhandle; the state's low point, on the Little River in the southeast, is under 300 feet.
Q 21What makes the grounds of the Oklahoma State Capitol unique among U.S. state capitols?
They contain active oil rigs
Oil was discovered inside the city limits in 1928, including under the capitol itself, and derricks have dotted the lawn ever since.
Q 22The Oklahoma State Capitol was completed in 1917 but did not get its dome until which year?
2002
The dome, capped by a 22-foot bronze sculpture called The Guardian, was added roughly 85 years after the building opened.
Q 23Which Oklahoma town, the 'Pipeline Crossroads of the World', is the pricing point for US benchmark crude?
Cushing
Q 14Which panhandle town was accidentally bombed by a U.S. B-17 crew on a training flight in July 1943?
Boise City
The crew missed their real target across the state line, mistook the four lights around the town square for it, and dropped six practice bombs; nobody was hurt.
Q 15Oklahoma has four primary mountain ranges. Which of these is one of them?
Arbuckle Mountains
The others are the Ouachita, Ozark and Wichita ranges; the state packs 11 distinct ecological regions inside its borders.
Q 16In 1907 the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge received 15 bison shipped from which institution?
The Bronx Zoo
Six bulls and nine cows made the trip; the herd now numbers around 650 and the refuge is the oldest managed wildlife facility in the federal system.
Q 17On average, about how many tornadoes strike Oklahoma each year?
62
That is one of the highest rates anywhere in the world, which is why the country's severe-storm forecasters are based in the state.
Q 18The Storm Prediction Center, which issues US tornado watches, is based in which Oklahoma city?
Norman
It moved there in January 1997 and since 2006 has shared the National Weather Center building with the National Severe Storms Laboratory.
Q 19What was the record Doppler-measured wind speed of the May 3, 1999 Bridge Creek–Moore tornado?
321 mph
A Doppler on Wheels truck took the reading; the F5 storm killed 36 people directly as it tore through the southern Oklahoma City suburbs.
Q 20Tulsa, the 'Oil Capital of the World' for most of the 20th century, sits on which river?
Arkansas
The city grew up in the western foothills of the Ozarks and still has one of the largest concentrations of Art Deco architecture in the country, much of it built with oil money.
Tank farms around the town can hold more than 90 million barrels, and it is the delivery point for the NYMEX crude futures contract.
Q 24The Nellie Johnstone, Oklahoma's first commercial oil well, struck oil near Bartlesville in which year?
1897
Frank Phillips later founded Phillips Petroleum in the same town while it was still part of Indian Territory.
Q 25Which architect designed Bartlesville's Price Tower, 'the tree that escaped the crowded forest'?
Frank Lloyd Wright
The 19-story tower, opened in 1956 for a pipeline-construction company, is described as his only completed skyscraper.
Q 26The Tulsa race massacre of 1921 destroyed which neighborhood, known as 'Black Wall Street'?
Greenwood
White mobs burned more than 35 square blocks; a state commission later put the death toll anywhere from 39 to around 300.
Q 27The Osage murders, later the subject of Killers of the Flower Moon, were driven by Osage wealth from what?
Oil headrights
At least 60 wealthy Osage were reported killed between 1918 and 1931, and the case became an early showcase for the Bureau of Investigation, forerunner of the FBI.
Q 28The 1995 Oklahoma City bombing destroyed a federal building named after which judge?
Alfred P. Murrah
The blast on April 19 killed 168 people, including 19 children, and remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history.
Q 29How many of the Oklahoma City Memorial's 168 chairs are the smaller size representing children?
19
Twin bronze Gates of Time flank the reflecting pool, marked 9:01 for the last moment of peace and 9:03 for the first moment of recovery.
Q 30The Survivor Tree at the Oklahoma City National Memorial is what kind of tree?
Elm
It stood on the north side of the site, was badly damaged by the bomb, and lived; the outdoor memorial was dedicated on the fifth anniversary in 2000.