Oklahoma State Map

Regions of Oklahoma

Oklahoma rises gradually from the forested, wetter southeast to the dry, treeless High Plains of the Panhandle. Most of the state drains east toward the Mississippi through the Arkansas and Red rivers.

The Panhandle

A strip about 34 miles wide and 166 miles long between Kansas and Texas, made up of Cimarron, Texas and Beaver counties. It touches Colorado and New Mexico at its western end, where Black Mesa reaches 4,973 ft, the state’s highest point. Guymon and Boise City are the main towns.

Western Oklahoma and the Red Beds plains

Wheat and cattle country with red soils and gypsum hills, around Woodward, Elk City, Clinton and Altus. The Wichita Mountains rise from the plains near Lawton and Fort Sill, home of the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge and its free-roaming bison.

Central Oklahoma

The Oklahoma City metro area sits on rolling prairie along the North Canadian River. The Cross Timbers, a belt of post oak and blackjack oak woodland, runs north–south through the center of the state between the prairie and the eastern forests.

Green Country (northeast)

Tulsa, the Arkansas River valley and the western edge of the Ozark Plateau. The region holds large reservoirs such as Grand Lake o’ the Cherokees and Lake Tenkiller. Tahlequah is the capital of the Cherokee Nation. The tallgrass prairie of Osage County, the state’s largest county, lies northwest of Tulsa.

Southeast and Kiamichi Country

The forested Ouachita Mountains and Kiamichi Mountains extend west from Arkansas into the southeast, toward Talihina, Idabel and Broken Bow. The Arbuckle Mountains near Ardmore and Sulphur include Chickasaw National Recreation Area and Turner Falls.

Rivers and lakes

• Red River: forms nearly all of the southern border with Texas.
• Arkansas River: enters from Kansas and flows through Tulsa and Muskogee into Arkansas; the McClellan–Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System links the Tulsa Port of Catoosa to the Mississippi River.
• Canadian and Cimarron rivers: cross the state from west to east to join the Arkansas.
• Lake Texoma and Lake Eufaula: two of the largest reservoirs; Lake Texoma lies on the Red River on the Texas border.

Major highways

• I-35: north–south through the center, from the Kansas line via Perry, Edmond, Oklahoma City, Norman and Ardmore to Texas toward Dallas–Fort Worth.
• I-40: east–west from Texas through Elk City, Clinton, Oklahoma City, Henryetta and Sallisaw to Fort Smith, Arkansas; it parallels much of old Route 66 in the west.
• I-44: from Wichita Falls, Texas, through Lawton to Oklahoma City, then the Turner Turnpike to Tulsa and the Will Rogers Turnpike to Joplin, Missouri.
• I-235, I-240 and I-244: urban routes in Oklahoma City and Tulsa.
• US 69 and US 75: from the Tulsa and Muskogee area south toward McAlester, Durant and Texas; the Indian Nation Turnpike also crosses the southeast.
• US 412: east–west across the north, including the Cimarron Turnpike between I-35 and Tulsa.
• US 54: the main diagonal route across the Panhandle, through Guymon between Kansas and Texas.