Question for the Oklahoma Freepers

I was just wondering what the Oklahoma Freepers have to say about the Ponca City area. It looks like there is a chance I may be having an interview out there in the near future and would appreciate any comments or advice about the area.

I lived in Oklahoma City from '89 to '95, and I visited the Ponca City area a few times. I can't give you great "insider" information, but I can make a few comments.

Your profile doesn't tell where you live in Virginia, but I can promise you that Ponca City won't look anything like home. I'm originally from East Tennessee, and Oklahoma was a big change for me. Ponca City is on the plains. There are small, rolling hills, but there are no mountains or big hills in the area. If you are from the mountains in the western part of Virginia, the place is going to look very flat. You are probably used to seeing a great deal of green. You'll still see some pretty greens, but you'll see more brownish colors. The wheat is a very light brown. The soil will often be a lighter brown or even red clay. I won't say that the place is ugly. I never thought of Oklahoma as ugly, but its beauty was different from what I knew in Tennessee (and at Virginia Tech for four years).

I don't remember Ponca City being that big, and there are no big cities really nearby. Oklahoma City is about two hours or so to the south. Tulsa is about the same distance to the east. Wichita, Kansas is maybe less than an hour north. If you really like the feel of cities, you might not like it there.

The weather is going to be very hot in the summer and very cold in the winter. You'll see a couple of months of temperatures pretty consistently in the 90's and sometimes (maybe five to ten days) in the 100's. Generally, the humidity will be low, so the heat won't be as unbearable as it sounds. In the winter, many days will feel pretty good, but you'll see cold snaps where fronts come down the plains from Canada and bring bitter cold and winds. It will be near or below zero for a couple of days every year and be below twenty fairly often for a month or so. The spring will be nice except for tornadoes, but they are localized enough not to be a big problem for most people. The fall should be pretty nice.

You can drive a couple of hours and see some different stuff. To the west, two hours' drive will take you to scenery that seems very "out west." You will see mesas and canyons that are reminiscent of western movies. To the east, the Tulsa area is hilly and wooded. It doesn't look exactly like the hills of western Virginia, but it's close. To the south or north, things won't change a great deal.

I don't really know what people do for fun in that area. Oklahoma has state parks all over the state, but few of them have really great hiking. There are plenty of places to picnic, and most of them are pretty nice. There's a lake near Ponca City called Kaw Lake. I think you can fish and boat there. They have a few hiking trails as well. Many eagles winter on Kaw Lake. I suspect that hunting is pretty popular in that area, but I don't know about it personally.

My big concern would be the overall Oklahoma economy. The oil wells in the middle of the country are no longer big producers. As a result, things have been tough for refineries in Oklahoma, and Oklahoma's economy was largely built on oil production and refining. You can probably buy a nice house for a low price in the area, but you may have to sell it at an even lower price if things continue to slide.

Overall, I still have fond memories of Oklahoma and wish you well if you go there.

WFTR
Bill

Do you have children? When I first moved to Oklahoma from NYS all 3 of my children that were in elementary school at the time went into grades where the books they were beginning were the same ones they just finished up on in the previous grade in their old schools. And there was no testing for grade placement, they just asked me what grade they were in in their old schools, which I found to be rather strange as one state obviously will have different standards than another. Oklahoma is consistently ranked in the lowest of the low end for education. You really have to search to find a good school district if that is one of your concerns, but they are here, just as there are really bad schools in states that rank much higher.

There are other adjustments to life in Oklahoma as well. In a town the size of PC, expect the streets to roll up at 9:00 sharp. The wind never stops blowing. And being in the northern plains area of the state you're going to get a lot more precip than the rest of the state. The people are for the most part friendly, but it is a different "friendly" than I am used to. Did I mention tornados?

Sometimes, I'm glad I moved here and sometimes I wonder what ever posessed me. Still can't get used to the 3 or more months of day after day heat near or above 100^o. But, OKC metro is south of PC so you might get less of that. If you come with an open mind and don't expect everyone to be like the are in the place you move from, it should be okay for you.

Ponca city?

http://www.poncacitychamber.com/main.html

http://www.poncacitymall.com/entrance.htm

Big city next to where I live. They have a fairly good small hospital there, with some specialists. They also have a small mall. People I know who live there like it.

Buy a house with central air conditioning and heat...housing is quite cheap.

People are quite friendly, Not a lot of jobs anywhere around here, unless the price of oil goes up, but lots of families still live here for generations. The Ponca tribe has a casino nearby, and if you smoke, there are smokeshops all over...

Conoco is still open there, unlike Bartlesville which lost a lot of jobs recently. And it's only an hour or so to Oklahoma city (depending if you drive under 95 mph, which is the local average speed on that section of interstate).

http://www.poncacity.com/

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