Guthrie, Oklahoma: An analysis of townscapes, 1889-1910.

Abstract

This dissertation examines the morphology of Guthrie, Oklahoma. It begins with an examination of the inception of the city as the designated capital of the Indian Territory and follows its development from an earlier concept proposed by Thomas Jefferson. It utilizes an urban ecological framework to underscore the important effects of key elements operating within the confines of the systems approach that being, "the whole is equal to all of its parts." These subsystems have been identified as physical, social/cultural, political, economical, and technological elements.

The next part of the dissertation examines various federal documents (Congressional bills, treaties, contracts, etc.) that had severe impacts on the development of Guthrie. Much of the chapter discusses political problems centering on definitions of "legal" settlers, legitimacy of land claims, efficacy of Indian rights, etc.

Chapter Six describes the settlement of Guthrie in some detail examining the various plats, street patterns, neighborhoods, and significant architecture. In describing the physical morphology of the community it tells of the removal of the State Capital and the subsequent disastrous effect that this action had on the city.

Chapter Five focuses on the actual development of Guthrie. This section focuses on Guthrie's four separate townsites, each with their own mayor and city council. It Provides documentation that gives insight to the phenomenal speed in which these city fathers' produced a city with water system, sewer systems, electricity, bridges, streets, etc. The early days of Guthrie being directed by the city council has been referred to as "urban design without urban designers" producing a city of stability, continuity and culture in the middle of a prairie that would equal any eastern city.

The next portion of the study begins with the work of Charles Cooley and early geographers at the University of Chicago and ties their research into the work of later systems analysts such as Kenneth Boulding, Richard Meier, Anthony Catanese, and Brian Berry. The key notion set forth is that all of the elements are tightly linked in the urban system, and that a change in any one of them causes alterations in any or all of the others. By applying this analytical construct directly to Guthrie, one can explain physical changes in growth and development that occurred over time.

Chapter Three is an in-depth study of the various Native American tribes that occupied the Oklahoma Territory over time---the initial nomadic people as well as the different Indian Nations that were forcibly settled in the area under federal proclamations. It discusses the economic and social relationships of these peoples with the early Spanish explorers, French trappers, American surveyors, and so forth. Considerable emphasis is placed on the political maneuverings executed by federal agencies and officers as well as high government officials and other vested interests.

The last two chapters, Conclusions and Epilogue, summarize the utility of using an urban ecological framework in documenting the growth of a community, and note possible growth paradigms presently available to Guthrie. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)