Elk City

Elk City Forklift Parts - Elk City (population 11,693) is a city in Beckham County, Oklahoma. It serves as the trading center for the Texas Panhandle and Western Oklahoma. The city is situated on the shelf of Oklahoma's Anadarko Basin, a geological region blessed with an abundance of natural gas and oil. The city is situated on Historic U.S. Route 66 in Western Oklahoma and on Interstate 40. Oklahoma City lies 180 km towards the east.

White settlers arrived in the area in the year 1892 after the Cheyenne-Arapaho reservation opened within western Oklahoma Territory. The present-day site of the city lay along the Great Western Cattle Trail running from Texas to Dodge City, Kansas, where ranchers drove their cattle. Agriculture played a prominent role in the city in the 20th century.

Elk City is today a modern trading center serving approximately 50,000 area inhabitants. The most important industries to Elk City's economy are petroleum, agriculture, tourism, wind energy, transportation, manufacturing and healthcare. The city has had slow but steady growth during the last decade because of the relocation and opening of drilling companies and oil field services there. The number of jobs is projected to boom, with a 42% increase in employment anticipated.

Elk City is mostly dependent upon the petroleum industry and is referred to as the "Natural Gas Capital of the World". Downtown Elk City is the location of Parker Drilling Rig 114, a 55 meter high structure that is the city's most famous visual feature.

The livestock auction is the most essential remnant of the city's agricultural economy. The city is still a retail center for area farmers and ranchers, but agriculture is not nearly as major as it once was. Wind farming has become increasingly important ever since the year 2009 when Acciona Energy commissioned the first wind farm of Elk City, Red Hills Wind Farm situated north of Elk City. The farm's 82 wind turbine generators produce enough power for 40,000 homes. Wind farming is expected to become a growing business.