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50 free Oklahoma City trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Oklahoma City went from empty prairie to a town of 10,000 in a single afternoon in April 1889, took the state capital from Guthrie, struck oil under its own Capitol building, and annexed so much land in the early 1960s that it briefly became the largest city in America by area. It is also the place where Bobby Troup told everyone to get their kicks on Route 66, where a 1999 tornado produced the fastest winds ever measured on Earth, and where a 1995 bombing is remembered with 168 empty chairs. These 50 questions cover the Land Run and the first mayor, the Great Annexation Drive, the MAPS sales-tax projects that built Bricktown's canal and brought the Thunder's arena, the Devon Tower and the planned Legends Tower, Will Rogers and Wiley Post, Tinker Air Force Base, the Museum of Osteology, the Capitol dome that waited 88 years, Lake Hefner, the Heartland Flyer and the Thunder's 2025 title. Easy questions stick to the state and the sports teams; the hard tier asks about mayors, record rainfall, James Beard winners and which two counties share the city limits with Oklahoma County. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation so you pick up something even when you miss.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Oklahoma City was founded during which 1889 event?
The Land Run
The 'Unassigned Lands' were opened on April 22 and some 10,000 homesteaders arrived within hours.
Q 02Who was elected Oklahoma City's first mayor in April 1889?
William Couch
The election came just four days after the Land Run.
Q 03Which city was Oklahoma's territorial capital before the move to Oklahoma City?
Guthrie
Oklahoma City had already overtaken it as the population center by statehood in 1907.
Q 04In which year was Oklahoma admitted to the Union?
1907
The capital moved from Guthrie soon after.
Q 05Oklahoma City is namechecked in which 1946 Bobby Troup song?
Route 66
Nat King Cole made the tune famous.
Q 06In which year was oil discovered within the city limits, including under the Capitol?
1928
The Capitol grounds remain the only ones in the US with active oil rigs.
Q 07The Oklahoma State Capitol is unique among US capitols for having what on its grounds?
Active oil wells
The building sits directly atop the Oklahoma City Oil Field.
Q 08The Capitol's dome, omitted from the original building, was finally completed in which year?
2002
It was part of the original 1914 plans but dropped over cost overruns.
Q 09The 1959-61 'Great Annexation Drive' expanded the city to roughly how many square miles?
475
It made Oklahoma City the largest US city by land mass at the time, up from 80 square miles.
Q 10Who became Oklahoma City's first female mayor in 1971?
Patience Latting
She was also the first woman to run a US city of more than 350,000 people.
Q 11The downtown botanical garden and conservatory built in the 1970s is called what?
Myriad Gardens and Crystal Bridge
It was one of the few parts of I. M. Pei's urban renewal plan to be completed.
Q 12The 1993 redevelopment package that rebuilt downtown is known by what acronym?
MAPS
It stands for Metropolitan Area Projects and drew over $3 billion in private investment by 2010.
Q 13Which entertainment district has a water canal with water taxis?
Bricktown
The former warehouse district also holds the Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark and a 16-screen theatre.
Q 21The tallest building in Oklahoma, completed in 2012, is named for which energy company?
Devon
Locals call the 844-foot tower simply 'Devon Tower'.
Q 22How tall is the Devon Energy Center?
844 feet
It took just over three years to build.
Q 23Which skyscraper proposed for Oklahoma City in 2024 was planned as the tallest in the US?
Legends Tower
At its proposed height it would rank among the tallest buildings in the world if completed.
Q 24The waterway bisecting the city was renamed what inside city limits in 2004?
Q 14Which historic downtown hotel was restored and reopened in 2007?
The Skirvin
The First National Center has also been undergoing renovation.
Q 15How many people were killed in the April 19, 1995 bombing?
168
It remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in US history.
Q 16The building destroyed in 1995 was named for which Oklahoma federal judge?
Alfred P. Murrah
The national memorial and museum now stand on its site.
Q 17The memorial's twin bronze gates are inscribed with which two times?
9:01 and 9:03
They frame 9:02, the moment of the blast; one marks the last moment of peace, the other the first of recovery.
Q 18What species is the memorial's 'Survivor Tree'?
American elm
Saplings grown from its seeds are given away each anniversary.
Q 19The Field of Empty Chairs is arranged in how many rows, one per floor of the building?
9
Each chair sits on the row matching the floor where that person was.
Q 20Which president signed the act creating the national memorial in 1997?
Bill Clinton
The memorial opened in 2000 and has drawn over three million visitors.
Oklahoma River
It was the North Canadian River, tamed by a 1940s dam and revived with low-water dams under MAPS.
Q 25Which is the largest of Oklahoma City's three big lakes?
Lake Stanley Draper
It sits in the sparsely populated far southeast of the city.
Q 26Only one state capital is larger than Oklahoma City by area. Which?
Juneau
Among all US cities it is second by area after Houston, excluding consolidated city-counties.
Q 27What was Oklahoma City's population at the 2020 census?
681,054
It was the first city in the Great Plains region to top 600,000 residents.
Q 28The May 3, 1999 tornado produced estimated winds of what speed, the highest ever recorded on Earth?
318 mph
It was the last tornado rated F5 on the original Fujita scale.
Q 29The 2013 El Reno twister near the city set what record?
Widest ever recorded
It measured 2.6 miles across.
Q 30Which month in 2015 was Oklahoma City's wettest on record?
May
It brought 19.48 inches of rain and record flooding across Oklahoma and Texas.