Green Country, sometimes referred to as Northeast Oklahoma, is the northeastern portion of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

, which lies west of the northern half of

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

, the southwestern corner the way of

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

, and south of

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

Alternate definitions

While the name's usage can be traced to the early part of the 20th century, it was popularized in the 1960s by the

Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation The Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation is a government agency, department of the government of Oklahoma within the Tourism and Branding Cabinet. The Department is responsible for regulating Oklahoma's tourism industry and for promotin ...

as one of six travel destination regions within the state. Said tourism designation is an 18-county region including

Pawnee Pawnee initially refers to a Native American people and its language: * Pawnee people * Pawnee language Pawnee is also the name of several places in the United States: * Pawnee, Illinois * Pawnee, Kansas * Pawnee, Missouri * Pawnee City, Nebraska * ...

, Osage,

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

, Nowata, Craig,

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...

Mayes Mayes is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Adrian Mayes (born 1980), American football player * Alan Mayes (born 1953), English footballer * Bernard Mayes (1929–2014), British-American lecturer and author * Clifford Mayes (bor ...

, Rogers, Creek,

Tulsa Tulsa ( ) is the second-most-populous city in the state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tul ...

, Wagoner,

Cherokee The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...

, Adair,

Sequoyah Sequoyah ( ; , , or , , ; 1770 – August 1843), also known as George Gist or George Guess, was a Native American polymath and Constructed script, neographer of the Cherokee Nation. In 1821, Sequoyah completed his Cherokee syllabary, enabl ...

, Muskogee, Okmulgee, and McIntosh counties. Another alternate usage of the term can include solely the immediate vicinity of Green Country's principal city,

; the Tulsa Metropolitan Area or the city of Tulsa proper is often referred to as "Green Country" in its own right. In this case, the terms "Tulsa Metropolitan Area" and "Green Country" are used interchangeably. Average precipitation totals in Green Country are generally above 40 inches per year. The area is also one of the most populous regions of Oklahoma, and is home to some of its largest cities.

Geography

Northeastern Oklahoma has the state's second largest city, Tulsa. In addition to the area's foliage and rolling hills, it has more lakes than any other geographical area of Oklahoma, as well as more than half of the state's registered state parks.
klahoma Department of Tourism/ref> Oklahoma is one of only four states with more than 10 ecoregions, but six of its 11 ecoregions are located in northeastern Oklahoma. The heavily wooded

Ozark Mountains The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, as well as a small area in the southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover ...

and their foothills dominate most of northeast Oklahoma from the immediate Tulsa vicinity south and eastward towards the Arkansas state line, containing both

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has Leaf, foliage that remains green and functional throughout the year. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during the winter or dry season. Consisting of many diffe ...

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

and

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed Leaf, leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

forests. In its western counties, the far eastern extent of the

Great Plains The Great Plains is a broad expanse of plain, flatland in North America. The region stretches east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and grassland. They are the western part of the Interior Plains, which include th ...

transition to woodlands through the

Cross Timbers The term Cross Timbers, also known as Ecoregion 29, Central Oklahoma/Texas Plains, is used to describe a strip of land in the United States that runs from southeastern Kansas across Central Oklahoma to Central Texas. Made up of a mix of prairi ...

region. This area includes most of Oklahoma's portion of the

Flint Hills The Flint Hills, historically known as Bluestem Pastures or Blue Stem Hills, are a region of hills and prairies that lie mostly in eastern Kansas. It is named for the abundant residual flint eroded from the bedrock that lies near or at the surfa ...

, some of which is the protected by the

Tallgrass Prairie Preserve The Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, in Osage County, Oklahoma near Foraker, Oklahoma, is the largest protected tract of tallgrass prairie in the world. Managed by The Nature Conservancy, the preserve contains owned by the Conser ...

near

Pawhuska Pawhuska ( Osage: 𐓄𐓘𐓢𐓶𐓮𐓤𐓘, ''hpahúska'', lit.: ''White Hair''; Chiwere: ''Paháhga'') is a city in and the county seat of Osage County, Oklahoma, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 2,984 ...

, one of the last remnants of

tallgrass prairie The tallgrass prairie is an ecosystem native to central North America. Historically, natural and Historical ecology#Anthropogenic fire, anthropogenic fire, as well as grazing by large mammals (primarily bison) provided periodic disturbances to th ...

in the United States. Prairie terrain is most apparent in a strip of Green Country's northern section, which borders

, running roughly from

Bartlesville Bartlesville is a city mostly in Washington County and Osage County, Oklahoma. The population was 37,290 at the 2020 census. Bartlesville is north of Tulsa and south of the Kansas border. It is the county seat of Washington County. The Caney ...

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

, where the landscape is a mix of true prairie and forest. A small portion of the

Ouachita Mountains The Ouachita Mountains (), simply referred to as the Ouachitas, are a mountain range in western Arkansas and southeastern Oklahoma. They are formed by a thick succession of highly deformed Paleozoic strata constituting the Ouachita Fold and Thru ...

extend into the southern areas of northeast Oklahoma, though the Ozark highlands are the primary range in the area. Northeast Oklahoma has a land area of , comprising 18 entire counties. The region comprises about 19.3 percent of Oklahoma's land area, and is larger than the state of

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

Political geography

Based on commuting patterns, the adjacent micropolitan area of Bartlesville, is grouped together in the (CSA). The population of this wider region is 998,438—more than one-fourth of

's population—as of 2012. The 2010 census population of Green Country was 1,301,716 inhabitants, about 30 percent of whom were concentrated in the city of

Counties of the Green Country region (per Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation)

* Adair County * Craig County *

Creek County Creek County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census, the population was 71,754. Its county seat is Sapulpa. Creek County is part of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area. History European explorers traveled through t ...

* Cherokee County * Delaware County * Mayes County * McIntosh County * Muskogee County * Nowata County * Okmulgee County * Osage County * Ottawa County * Pawnee County *

Rogers County Rogers County is a county located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census, the population was 95,240, making it the sixth-most populous county in Oklahoma. The county seat is Claremore. Rogers County is ...

* Sequoyah County *

Tulsa County Tulsa County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 669,279, making it the second-most populous county in the state, behind only Oklahoma C ...

Wagoner County Wagoner County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census, the population was 80,981. Its county seat is Wagoner. Wagoner County is included in the Tulsa metropolitan area. History According to archaeological st ...

* Washington County It includes the Deep Fork National Wildlife Refuge, Ozark Plateau National Wildlife Refuge,

Arkansas River The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in Colorado, specifically ...

Canadian River The Canadian River is the longest tributary of the Arkansas River in the United States. It is about long, starting in Colorado and traveling through New Mexico, the Texas Panhandle, and Oklahoma. The drainage area is about .Grand River,

Illinois River The Illinois River () is a principal tributary of the Mississippi River at approximately in length. Located in the U.S. state of Illinois, the river has a drainage basin of . The Illinois River begins with the confluence of the Des Plaines ...

, and

Verdigris River The Verdigris River is a tributary of the Arkansas River in southeastern Kansas and northeastern Oklahoma in the United States. It is about long.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map ...

Infrastructure

The

Tulsa International Airport Tulsa International Airport is a civil-military airport five miles (8 km) northeast of Downtown Tulsa, in Tulsa County, Oklahoma, Tulsa County, Oklahoma, United States. It was named Tulsa Municipal Airport when the city acquired it in 1929 ...

is the primary commercial flight operation in Green Country. Also in the area, the

Tulsa Port of Catoosa The Tulsa Ports consist of the ports of Catoosa and Inola near Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States, on the Verdigris River, a tributary of the Arkansas River, Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers. The ports are at and near the head of navigation for the M ...

and

Port of Muskogee The Port of Muskogee, rebranded as Port Muskogee in January 2023, is a regional inland port located on the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System in Muskogee County, Oklahoma, in the United States. It is a multi-modal local hub for th ...

are Oklahoma's only seaports, connecting the state directly with international trade routes. From either of these two ports, goods may be transported via the Arkansas River's connection to the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

. Intercity bus service is provided by

Greyhound Lines Greyhound Lines, Inc. is an American operator of Intercity bus service, intercity bus services. Greyhound operates the largest intercity bus network in the United States, and also operates charter and Amtrak Thruway services, as well as interci ...

and

Jefferson Lines Jefferson Lines (JL or JLI) is a regional intercity bus company operating in 14 states in the Midwest and the West of the United States. History The company is operated by Jefferson Partners L.P., located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Jefferson P ...

. Within the Tulsa metro, Tulsa Transit provides local service. The area's highway system is dominated by turnpikes. Toll roads account for the primary highways in and out of the city of Tulsa in almost every direction. The

Will Rogers Turnpike The Will Rogers Turnpike is a controlled-access toll road in the northeast portion of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The highway begins as a continuation of the Creek Turnpike in Tulsa, continuing northward from the I-44/ US-412 interchange there ...

serves the city to the northeast, the

Turner Turnpike The Turner Turnpike is a controlled-access toll road in central Oklahoma, connecting its two largest cities, Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Authorized by the Oklahoma Legislature in 1947 and opened in May 1953, it is the oldest of the state's twelve ...

to the southwest, the

Cimarron Turnpike The Cimarron Turnpike is a controlled-access toll road in north-central Oklahoma. The route travels , from an interchange with Interstate 35 (I-35) north of Perry, to Westport, just west of Tulsa. The route also consists of a spur which ...

to the west, The

Muskogee Turnpike The Muskogee Turnpike, also designated State Highway 351 (SH-351), is a controlled-access toll road in eastern Oklahoma. Route description Opened in 1969, the 53-mile (85.2 km) route begins at the Broken Arrow Expressway ( SH-51) southe ...

to the southeast, and the

Cherokee Turnpike The Cherokee Turnpike is a controlled-access toll road in eastern Oklahoma. Opened in 1991, the route is a four-lane freeway carrying US-412 from east of Kansas, Oklahoma, to east of Chouteau, and has a total length of and a speed limit of ...

to the east.

Interstate 44 Interstate 44 (I-44) is an Interstate Highway in the central United States. Although it is nominally an east–west road as it is even-numbered, it follows a more southwest–northeast alignment. Its western terminus is in Wichita Falls, T ...

is the primary thoroughfare and runs diagonally through Green Country, exiting on the southwest and northeast corners. All portions of the road through northeastern Oklahoma exists as a toll road, except for in the city of

. Interstate 40 straddles the southernmost border of Green Country, while other highways include the north-south Highway 75 (not a turnpike), The Muskogee Turnpike, the north-south Highway 69, Highway 169, and the east-west Highway 412. In addition, Historic

U.S. Route 66 U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) is one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The high ...

runs (with breaks) between the Kansas line and

Stroud Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021. Sited below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the ...

, the southwesternmost town in the region.

Cities and towns

* Owasso * Broken Arrow *

* Jenks * Bixby * Skiatook * Claremore *

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

* Okmulgee * Muskogee *

Tahlequah Tahlequah ( ; , ) is a city in Cherokee County, Oklahoma located at the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. It is part of the Green Country region of Oklahoma and was established as a capital of the 19th-century Cherokee Nation in 1839, as par ...

* Vinita * Pryor * Oologah * Sapulpa * Sand Springs * Stilwell * Nowata *

* Wagoner

References

External links

Green Country Marketing AssociationGreen Country North Eastern Oklahoma Business and Events Showcase - Features 48,000 Businesses and Hundreds of Local Events Oklahoma Digital Maps: Digital Collections of Oklahoma and Indian Territory
{{Coord, 36.5, N, 95.5, W, format=dec, display=title, type:adm1st_region:US-OK Official tourism regions in Oklahoma Regions of the Southern United States Regions of Oklahoma Ozarks Ouachita Mountains Populated places within the Cherokee Nation reservation