Outside the Metro

Raving for El Reno

Just down the road from OKC, El Reno curates its own identity as a weekend getaway or suburban respite.

Right: The U.S. Calvary Competition is a hot ticket event.

Below: El Reno’s downtown area boasts a variety of murals. Photos courtesy the City of El Reno A 15-minute drive down Interstate 40 or historic Route 66 takes a person from the Canadian County seat of El Reno into the heart of Oklahoma’s capital. at, says El Reno mayor Matt White, helps explain El Reno’s attractiveness and population growth over the past decade. “We can conduct business in Oklahoma City, but we have a hometown feel,” says White, a longtime real estate and business developer of the community, which lies at the convergence of two highways and two historic routes. “You can go to a under game, and do stu in Oklahoma City, but live here. It’s a wonderful community.”

El Reno started as a trading post and resting place on the famed Chisholm Trail cattle drives, between Texas and Kansas, before Oklahoma statehood, and bene ted from the arrival of the Rock Island railroad. It’s a thriving, energetic community and has proved a draw not only for its residents but for tourists and visitors. And with the reemergence of city life, activities that draw tourists to the city again are popping up on the calendar.

Some come to El Reno for a taste of the city’s local taste treat, the famed fried-onion burger, developed in the hard economic times of the 1930s by an entrepreneur who augmented his thin hamburger patties with piles of shredded onions, and unknowingly created what became a local delicacy. Today, three fried-onion burger eateries – Sid’s Diner, Robert’s Grill and Johnnie’s Grill – draw a regular clientele of townsfolk and visitors, says Shana Ford, executive director of El Reno Main Street. e city pays tribute to the delicious burger creation with a Burger Day celebration each May. Ford o ers an inquirer a list of other events this year that signal a return to better times. Four new murals are gracing the downtown area, along with four new downtown businesses that have opened recently.

Events such as a Quilt Walk, Christmas parade, the “Smoke on the Water” boat races on Lake El Reno, and the city’s iconic soupedup lawnmower races – held on select weekends by the city’s Grascar Racing Association – are indications that El Reno is around for the long haul.

Population estimates from 2019 place El Reno’s population at just over 20,000, says White, as local o cials await gures from the 2020 Census.

Originally 10 miles north, El

Reno was established in its present location after the 1889 land run, and today is at the intersection of Interstate 40, U.S. Highway 81 and historic Route 66.

Just west of town is the site of an 1800s military outpost, Fort

Reno, established to keep peace on the plains, which remains a tourist draw as an historic landmark that includes a museum, cemetery and a U.S. Agriculture

Department research lab. It also includes the post chapel, a national historic site built in 1944 by African prisoners of war captured during World War II.

Gol ng enthusiasts will likely enjoy the city-owned Crimson

Creek Golf Course, an 18-hole layout that includes holes that were part of the former El Reno

Country Club course. e new links were designed by noted golf course architect P.B. Dye. HENRY DOLIVE

FOR MORE INFORMATION

EL RENO MAIN STREET

405-262-8888 elrenomainstreet.com

EL RENO CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU

405-262-4070 cityofelreno.com

EL RENO CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

405-262-1188 elrenochamber.com

HISTORIC FORT RENO

405-262-3987 fortreno.org

CRIMSON CREEK GOLF COURSE

405-422-4653 crimsoncreekgolf.com