Outside the Metro

Serenity in Seminole

Over owing with history, this city o ers plenty to tourists and residents alike.

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The ’20s roared especially loud in Seminole, as one of Oklahoma’s greatest oil booms turned the town into a raucous, rowdy and often lawless place, where the population swelled to 40,000 at one point. Nearly a century later, Seminole

SEMINOLE CHAMBER is a bit smaller and certainly a lot

OF COMMERCE quieter, but nevertheless, it o ers 405-382-3640 its residents and visitors an inviting seminoleokchamber.org quality of life. Along the way, Seminole sent its

JASMINE MORAN CHILDREN’S native son David L. Boren into the

MUSEUM 405-382-0950 jasminemoran.com world, rst to represent the city in the Oklahoma legislature before becoming governor, U.S. senator and,

CITY OF SEMINOLE for nearly 25 years, president of the 405-382-4330 University of Oklahoma. seminole-oklahoma.net Originally named Tidmore and

SEMINOLE STATE COLLEGE 405-382-9950 sscok.edu located a few miles to the southeast, Seminole is ten miles south of Interstate 40, about 85 miles southwest of Tulsa and 55 miles southeast of

GORDON COOPER Oklahoma City. e 2020 U.S. Census

TECHNOLOGY CENTER shows the population at just over

Seminole Campus 7,100. It’s the largest city and argu405-303-2886 ably the business hub of Seminole gctech.edu County, which encompassed the

JIMMIE AUSTIN GOLF COURSE 405-382-3365 seminole-oklahoma.net/ jimmie-austin-golf-course original Seminole Nation after the tribe was forcibly relocated from the southeastern U.S. “We try to keep quite a bit going on,” says Amy Britt, the executive director of Seminole’s Chamber of Commerce. e City of Seminole’s website explains that the 1926 oil strike brought “an in ux of people, as Black The largest city in the Gold owed from nearby wells nonstop, while hotels county, Seminole off ers guests skate parks, a children’s museum and and businesses sprung up everywhere.” According to the Oklahoma Historical Society, at that time aquatic adventures. Seminole lacked adequate streets and quickly became Photo by Ryan Monroe a morass of mud as cars, trucks and heavy equipment rolled into town.

Perhaps epitomizing Seminole’s post-oil-boom transformation into a viable, livable city are the establishment of Seminole State College and the Jasmine Moran Children’s Museum.

Located at the city’s northwest edge, SSC has its own unique evolution. Once part of the local school system with classes in the high school building, it became a separate institution in the late 1960s. First supported by a one-cent local sales tax approved by Seminole voters, the college eventually became a fullyfunded part of Oklahoma’s higher education system.

Today, the college’s 15-building campus o ers two-year associate’s degrees for students planning to transfer to four-year colleges and for students intending to enter the workforce directly. e Jasmine Moran Children’s Museum was established by longtime oilman and former mayor Melvin Moran and his wife, Jasmine, who visited a similar museum with their grandchildren in Michigan. It opened in 1993, and museum president and CEO Marci Donaho says it has attracted more than 1 million visitors from 77 countries. e 42,000-square-foot museum covers 12 acres and features child-friendly, hands-on exhibits, plus a miniature train. Donaho says the museum’s continued success speaks to the city’s quality of life.

“How many towns our size have a successful children’s museum?” she asks. While the oil eld boom days are long gone, petroleum remains a signi cant part of the local economy. “Not necessarily drilling, but other kinds of things that use oil products,” says Britt, such as pump supply operations and drill bit sharpening. e city also operates the 39,000-square-foot Donald W. Reynolds Wellness Center, o ering tness classes and recreational services, plus a walking trail and athletic elds. e city-owned, two-mile-long Sportsman Lake east of Seminole is one of Oklahoma’s treasured and most scenic shing spots. HENRY DOLIVE