Experience the best of Tulsa

Tulsa stands on the Arkansas River in north-eastern Oklahoma and boomed in the early twentieth century as the Oil Capital of the World. Its wealth built the Art Deco towers of downtown and Boston Avenue Methodist Church, a landmark of 1929, and the city keeps a notable collection of Art Deco buildings.

The Philbrook Museum of Art is an Italianate villa with gardens, and the Gilcrease Museum has a vast collection of Western and Native American art. The Woody Guthrie Center and the Bob Dylan Center hold archives of two songwriters. Greenwood, a Black business district known as Black Wall Street, was destroyed in the 1921 race massacre and is remembered at a history centre. Route 66 passes through Tulsa, and the Blue Whale of Catoosa, a roadside pond sculpture of the 1970s, stands north-east of the city.

Chicken-fried steak, barbecue, fried okra and Indian tacos made on fry bread fill the menus. Western swing grew up in Tulsa dance halls, and live music is still part of town life. Summers are hot, spring brings thunderstorms, and autumn is mild.