Today in History - 1907

100 years ago today, Oklahoma, the Sooner State, became the 46th state to enter the U.S. The word, Oklahoma, is a combination of two Choctaw words meaning red people. Then, why Sooner? Many, many Oklahoma homesteaders thought sooner was better than later, better to stake their homesteads first, before it was legal to do so. When that wind comes sweeping down the plain, it picks up the state bird, the scissor-tail flycatcher, ruffles the fur of the American Bison, the state mammal, and spreads the parasitic state flower, the mistletoe.