Oklahoma panhandle

The Oklahoma panhandle (formerly called No Man's Land, the Public Land Strip, the Neutral Strip, or Cimarron Territory) is a salient in the extreme northwestern region of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Its constituent counties are, from west to east, Cimarron, Texas and Beaver. As with other salients in the United States, its name comes from the similarity of its shape to the handle of a pan. Its largest city is Guymon in Texas County. Black Mesa State Park, located in Cimarron County, is the highest point in the state. Other points of interest include Beaver Dunes Park, Optima Lake, and the Optima National Wildlife Refuge. Oklahoma Panhandle State University is ten miles away from Guymon.

Paleo-Indian people settled in the region around 8450 BCE. Native American horticulturists inhabited the region before the European colonists arrived in the 16th century. The area became part of New Spain with the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819, which set the western boundary of the Louisiana Purchase at the 100th meridian. The outcome of the Mexican War of Independence made the panhandle a part of Mexico in 1821. The area was part of the Texas Republic from its formation in 1836 until Texas became part of the United States in 1846, which left the area federal property. The area was incorporated into Oklahoma Territory and later split into three counties when Oklahoma obtained statehood in 1907.

As of the 2020 United States census, the region has a population of 28,729, and Texas County is the only county in Oklahoma to have a plurality of Hispanic residents, which make up 48.1 percent of the county's population. Its economy is primarily agricultural, and its political elections sway in favor of the Republican Party.

The panhandle, 166 miles (267 km) long and 34 miles (55 km) wide, is bordered by Kansas and Colorado at 37°N on the north, New Mexico at 103°W on the west, Texas at 36.5°N on the south, and the remainder of Oklahoma at 100°W on the east.

The largest town in the region is Guymon, which is the county seat of Texas County. Black Mesa, the highest point in Oklahoma at 4,973 feet (1,516 m), is located in Cimarron County. The panhandle occupies nearly all of the true High Plains within Oklahoma, being the only part of the state lying west of the 100th meridian, which generally marks the westernmost extent of moist air from the Gulf of Mexico. The North Canadian River is named Beaver River or Beaver Creek on its course through the panhandle. Its land area is 5,686 square miles (14,730 km²) which is 8.28 percent of Oklahoma's land area. The area includes Beaver Dunes Park with sand dunes along the Beaver River and Optima Lake, the home of the Optima National Wildlife Refuge.

Unlike most of Oklahoma, the panhandle is not in the Sun Belt. The Kinder Institute defines the Sun Belt as areas south of 36°30'N latitude, which is the southern border of the panhandle.

What is now the Oklahoma panhandle has been occupied for millennia. The Paleo-Indian people of the region were part of the Beaver River complex. A Paleo-Indian encampment, the Bull Creek site, dates back to approximately 8450 BCE, and the Badger Hole site dates to circa 8400 BCE.

Shortly before the arrival of European explorers, the panhandle was home to Southern Plains villagers. From 1200 to 1500, the semi-sedentary panhandle culture peoples, including the Antelope Creek phase, lived in the region in large, stone-slab and plaster houses in villages or individual homesteads. As horticulturists, they farmed maize and indigenous crops from the Eastern Agricultural Complex. Several Antelope Creek phase sites were founded near present-day Guymon, including the McGrath, Stamper and Two Sisters sites. The arrival of horses from Spain in the 16th century allowed American Indian tribes to increase their hunting ranges. These Southern Plains villagers became the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes.