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Chapter 10 | Section 2

Early Cold War Oklahoma

After World War II came to an end in 1945, tensions grew between the United States and the Soviet Union. Even though the two countries fought on the same side in the war against Germany, they had very different ideas about what they wanted when the war ended. The Soviet Union wanted to spread communism, and the United States, as the self-proclaimed leader of the democratic world, wanted to stop that from happening. In the late 1940s, the United States developed a new foreign policy. This policy, known as the Truman Doctrine, or the Doctrine of Containment, committed the United States to stopping the spread of communism. Later this policy led to American involvement in both Korea and Vietnam. It also resulted in an arms race and a space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. In Oklahoma the early Cold War tensions between the two superpowers led to economic development and new infrastructure needs.

Following World War II, Oklahoma and the nation experienced a postwar economic boom. An infusion of federal funds led to the development of large-scale infrastructure projects, such as the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, the interstate highway system, and the expansion of tourism.

Cold War Missile Silos
MAP 10.2

Cold War Missile Silos

Cold War missile silos. In response to the Soviet Union’s nuclear threat during the Cold War, the US government created the Atlas Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. As shown on this map, twelve Atlas F Missile sites were built near Altus Air Force Base during the early 1960s. Underground silos housed the 82-foot-long missiles. A five-person crew lived and worked in the underground Launch Control Center. The Atlas Missile, one of the missiles built near Altus Air Force Base, was capable of reaching the Soviet Union in forty-three minutes. The Atlas Missile Program remained a national security priority under the Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson administrations.

Courtesy of Brad Watkins, PhD.
MAP 10.2

Cold War missile silos. In response to the Soviet Union’s nuclear threat during the Cold War, the US government created the Atlas Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. As shown on this map, twelve Atlas F Missile sites were built near Altus Air Force Base during the early 1960s. Underground silos housed the 82-foot-long missiles. A five-person crew lived and worked in the underground Launch Control Center. The Atlas Missile, one of the missiles built near Altus Air Force Base, was capable of reaching the Soviet Union in forty-three minutes. The Atlas Missile Program remained a national security priority under the Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson administrations.

Courtesy of Brad Watkins, PhD.

Major Interstate, Highway, and Turnpike Systems
MAP 10.3

Major Interstate, Highway, and Turnpike Systems

Major interstate, highway, and turnpike systems in Oklahoma. The interstate highway system served as an important Cold War defense measure. During the Cold War, the Eisenhower administration determined that a sophisticated system of highways was needed to ensure national defense. In case of a major attack on the United States, the highways would enable the swift evacuation of large cities and mobilization of troops. As seen on this map, three interstate highways cross Oklahoma as the “crossroads of America”: I-35, I-40, and I-44.

Courtesy of Brad Watkins, PhD.
MAP 10.3

Major interstate, highway, and turnpike systems in Oklahoma. The interstate highway system served as an important Cold War defense measure. During the Cold War, the Eisenhower administration determined that a sophisticated system of highways was needed to ensure national defense. In case of a major attack on the United States, the highways would enable the swift evacuation of large cities and mobilization of troops. As seen on this map, three interstate highways cross Oklahoma as the “crossroads of America”: I-35, I-40, and I-44.

Courtesy of Brad Watkins, PhD.

McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System

Robert S. Kerr was elected as Oklahoma’s twelfth governor in 1943. He wanted to stabilize the Arkansas River and make it navigable. In 1948, after serving a term as governor, Kerr was elected to the US Senate and worked with Senator John L. McClellan of Arkansas to secure federal funding for construction along the river that ran through both states. The US Army Corps of Engineers worked for sixteen years to widen, deepen, and stabilize the Arkansas River. The total cost of the federal project was $2 billion. When it opened in 1971, the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System represented the largest civil works project undertaken by the US Army Corps of Engineers.

The McClellan-Kerr project relied on upstream lakes and dams in Oklahoma to ensure a dependable and controllable flow of water. The lock and damn system included a series of locks, which are big areas of water with movable gates that allow movement through them. There are five locks in Oklahoma and thirteen more downstream in Arkansas. These made the river navigable from the Port of Catoosa, the innermost waterway in the United States and located near Tulsa, to the Mississippi River, New Orleans, and the Gulf of Mexico. The first inbound cargo arrived in 1971, right after completion of the project. To reach Catoosa, the cargo traveled the system’s entire 448 miles—398 on the Arkansas River, the last 50 on the Verdigris River. The benefits of this federal project include flood control, hydroelectric power, smoother transportation, and recreation.

Port of Catoosa
FIG. 10.12

Port of Catoosa

Dedicated by President Richard M. Nixon on June 5, 1971, the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System at the Port of Catoosa opened a nine-foot navigation channel up the Arkansas and Verdigris Rivers. The system expanded Oklahoma’s transportation infrastructure. This photo by Jim Argo displays a ship carrying cargo through the public port.

Courtesy of the Oklahoma Historical Society.
FIG. 10.12

Dedicated by President Richard M. Nixon on June 5, 1971, the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System at the Port of Catoosa opened a nine-foot navigation channel up the Arkansas and Verdigris Rivers. The system expanded Oklahoma’s transportation infrastructure. This photo by Jim Argo displays a ship carrying cargo through the public port.

Courtesy of the Oklahoma Historical Society.

Interstate Highway System

The Interstate Highway Act of 1956 laid the groundwork for a national system of interstate and defense highways. The act revolutionized the nation’s entire highway system. The system is still very much in place today. Three interstate highways cross Oklahoma. Interstate 35 is the major north-south route in central Oklahoma, connecting the Kansas border on the north to the Red River on the south. Extending beyond Oklahoma, I-35 connects the US-Mexico border to the US-Canada border. Interstate 40 replaced the western portion of Route 66, from Oklahoma City to the Texas Panhandle. The newer highway bisects the entire state from east to west, connecting the border with Arkansas to the border with Texas. Interstate 44 replaced the eastern portion of Route 66, which ran through Tulsa to Oklahoma City. The newer highway continues on a diagonal into southwestern Oklahoma. The section of I-44 that connects Tulsa to Oklahoma City is called the Turner Turnpike. This four-lane superhighway opened in 1953.

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)

In 1958, Oklahoma senator Mike Monroney introduced legislation that created the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Its purpose would be to provide safe and efficient use of national air space. The headquarters of the FAA was established in Washington, DC, but Oklahoma City became one of its regional offices. Located on the grounds of Will Rogers Airport, it also became the site of what was subsequently called the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center. That operation housed a logistics center that provided consulting, engineering, repair, distribution, and technical support for air traffic control in the United States and forty-four other countries. It also included the FAA Academy, where all US and most international air traffic controllers received their training. The center employed 5,600 workers in 2011. That made the FAA the state’s third largest employer.

Federal Aviation Administration

In 1958 Oklahoma Senator Mike Monroney introduced legislation that created the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to provide safe and efficient use of national air space. This legislation was introduced in response to the collision of two commercial airliners in 1956 over the Grand Canyon in Arizona, a crash that left no survivors. The Federal Aviation Act of 1958 transferred the responsibilities of the Civil Aeronautics Authority to the new federal agency.

In 1967, the FAA would be incorporated into the Department of Transportation as one of its agencies. The headquarters of the FAA is in Washington, DC, but Oklahoma City became one of its regional offices. The FAA Academy, the training center for air traffic controllers, is housed in Oklahoma City. As of 2021, the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center or FAA in Oklahoma City employs over 6,300 federal employees and contractors.

In 1964, the FAA sponsored a controversial experiment to determine the viability of transcontinental supersonic transport flight (also known as SST). In this experiment, 1,253 sonic booms were conducted over Oklahoma City in six months, at a pace of eight booms per day. City officials hoped that Oklahoma City would eventually become a hub for SST. However, residents of the city were concerned about the disruption and damage the sonic booms were causing, which included significant window breakage, cracked plaster in homes, and broken foundations. In response to the experiments, over 15,000 formal complaints were filed, and residents made almost 5,000 damage claims. After this public outcry, testing was ended and support for SST aircraft in the United States virtually disappeared. Though the experiment was unsuccessful, and Oklahoma City did not become a hub for SST, the FAA still plays a key role in Oklahoma today as a major employer, and the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center continues to train the next generation of air traffic controllers on a vast array of radar systems.

Agriculture

In the postwar years, fewer Oklahomans worked in farming, and agriculture contributed less than it had in the past to the state’s total income. As late as 1950, one in five working Oklahomans was a farmer, and farmers together earned 14 percent of Oklahomans’ total income. Twenty years later, in 1970, only one Oklahoman in 20 was a farmer. Corporate agricultural companies, as part of the agribusiness industry, bought up family farms and accelerated the trend in corporate agriculture replacing family farming. About 1,000 of these corporate farms produced over $2 billion a year—around $2 million each on average. Only 1.4 percent of Oklahoma’s most prosperous farms were earning 52 percent of the state’s entire farm income. Corporate agriculture was replacing family farming even more rapidly than before.

During the mid-1970s and into the early 1980s, a meat shortage led to an increase in the price of beef. Crop failures in other countries and massive US grain sales to the Soviet Union drove Oklahoma wheat prices to new highs. Bankers were eager to lend money to farmers who purchased more land, dug more irrigation wells, and purchased more farming implements and farming machinery. And then the boom went bust. Meat prices started to decline. The United States announced it would suspend grain sales to the Soviet Union, as punishment for the communist nation’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. This was bad news for wheat growers in Alfalfa County and other wheat-growing counties in Oklahoma. Wheat that had sold for $5.60 a bushel now brought $2.70. Farmers began missing loan payments.

Agriculture and Agribusiness

Oklahoma agriculture has gone through several cycles of prosperity (boom) with subsequent periods of decline (bust). In 1935, Oklahoma boasted the highest number of farms in Oklahoma history, roughly 213,325, most of them smaller family-owned farms. However, by 1969 there would only be 83,037 farms due to a shift from small family farms to larger agribusiness farming during the 1950s through the 1970s. While the number of farms was decreasing, the size of operational farms was increasing. In 1950, there were 21,760 farms with 30–50 acres compared to 1969, when this number had decreased to 6,684. On the other hand, the farms with over 1,000 acres grew. In 1964 only 336 farms had over 1,000 acres compared to 470 farms just 5 years later. Due to the decline in smaller family farms, Oklahoma’s overall farm population decreased to only 25 percent of the state’s total by 1950, compared to 50 percent in 1920. So why did this shift happen?

Agriculture in the 1950s started to change for several reasons. One important factor was the innovations in farming equipment and engineering. The mechanization of tractors, turbines, and other large machines made farming equipment more expensive. These costs were a heavy burden for the average farmer. A set of tractor tires could cost as much as $28,000. Escalating costs forced small family farms either to expand their acreage to afford these additional costs, or give up farming altogether. By the 1970s, family farms were being sold off and consolidated into larger corporate farms, leading to the growth of agribusiness. At this point, if a farmer did not have more than 1,000 acres and the latest large industrial machines, they were considered a “hobby farmer” and would have to secure employment outside the family farm in order to support their family financially.

Crop production soared in the 1950s thanks to the development of chemical pesticides, fertilizers, and improved varieties of seeds, all of which in turn made large single-crop farming easier. Much-needed drought irrigation engineering made it possible to grow crops more easily in the dry Oklahoma climate.

Oklahoma’s main cash crops in the 1950s were corn, cotton, and winter wheat. Cotton grew well in the southwest region of Oklahoma while corn, barley, and sorghum grew well in the Panhandle. Peanuts, which were first commercially grown for peanut oil during World War II, were planted in southwest Oklahoma. Wheat was predominantly grown in the western half of Oklahoma, whereas hay was mostly grown in the eastern half. No matter the nature of the crop, the operations were mainly in the hands of large agribusiness operators. It was the same with cattle and poultry farming.

From the 1970s to the 2010s, agriculture has remained a key part of Oklahoma’s economy. By the 1990s, Oklahoma’s annual production in this industry ranged from between $4 and $5 billion, with livestock and poultry leading the way. Commercial crops included wheat, hay, cotton, and soybeans. By the early 2000s only a small percentage of Oklahomans continued to live on farms.

Today there are more than 75,000 farms working 34 million acres of land in Oklahoma. The state exports agricultural products annually to national and international markets. Top agricultural exports include beef, pork, cotton, and wheat.

Oklahoma Tourism

Since World War II Oklahoma officials have generally tried to encourage tourism by promoting the state’s natural wonders and recreational facilities. The US Army Corps of Engineers, for example, constructed the dam that formed the 5,700-acre Lake Murray, one of several large reservoirs built in the state at the time for flood control and water supply. In 1951, Lake Murray State Park became the site of the first of five state-owned resort lodges. Other lodge sites are Quartz Mountain, Lake Texoma, Fort Gibson Lake, and Roman Nose State Park.

Oklahoma’s state parks, lodges, and tourism programs were initially managed by the Planning and Resources Board, the Department of Commerce and Industry, and the Industrial Development and Parks Department. In 1972, however, the state legislature transferred responsibility for those programs to the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department, which is still in place today. Currently the agency is responsible for maintaining some forty-two state parks, marketing the state as a tourist attraction, recruiting film and music projects, creating television shows like Discover Oklahoma, and publishing the magazine Oklahoma Today.

Modern Petroleum

The demand for oil and gas increased during the early Cold War period. As the economy boomed and more Americans purchased automobiles, Oklahoma benefited. New technology allowed for the production of more gasoline using a process called catalytic cracking (also known as “cat”). This new chemical process meant Oklahoma could produce more gasoline per gallon of oil than had previously been possible. In addition, this technology made possible the production of other hydrocarbon-based products (including some plastics and cleaning solutions) using this same technology. As long as demand remained high, catalytic cracking had a positive impact on the Oklahoma economy. Over time, though, the oil industry tried to avoid overproduction and in turn lowered gas prices. Government regulations limited oil production just as government regulations limited farming production. State proration (distribution) laws calculated limits on oil production. And the federal government also determined how much oil could be imported from other countries.