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131-519: Muskogee County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma . As of the 2020 census , the population was 66,339. The county seat is Muskogee . The county and city were named for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation . The official spelling of the name was changed to Muskogee by the post office in 1900. Muskogee County is part of the Muskogee, OK micropolitan statistical area , which is included in

262-1054: A city , town , or village . A few counties directly provide public transportation themselves, usually in the form of a simple bus system. However, in most counties, public transportation is provided by one of the following: a special district that is coterminous with the county (but exists separately from the county government), a multi-county regional transit authority, or a state agency. In western and southern states, more populated counties provide many facilities, such as airports, convention centers , museums, recreation centers , beaches, harbors, zoos, clinics, law libraries , and public housing . They provide services such as child and family services, elder services, mental health services, welfare services, veterans assistance services, animal control , probation supervision, historic preservation, food safety regulation, and environmental health services. They have many additional officials like public defenders , arts commissioners, human rights commissioners, and planning commissioners. There may be

393-446: A consolidated city-county or independent city exists, a city council usually governs city/county or city affairs. In some counties, day-to-day operations are overseen by an elected county executive or by a chief administrative officer or county administrator who reports to the board, the mayor, or both. In many states, the board in charge of a county holds powers that transcend all three traditional branches of government. It has

524-454: A temperate climate and a varied view. According to Theodore Roosevelt : We have taken into our language the word prairie , because when our backwoodsmen first reached the land [in the Midwest ] and saw the great natural meadows of long grass—sights unknown to the gloomy forests wherein they had always dwelt—they knew not what to call them, and borrowed the term already in use among

655-407: A cliff (called a buffalo jump ), to kill or injure the bison en masse . The introduction of the horse and the gun greatly expanded the killing power of the plains Natives. That was followed by the policy of indiscriminate killing by European Americans and Canadians for both commercial reasons and to weaken the independence of plains Natives, and caused a dramatic drop in bison numbers from millions to

786-424: A county fire department and a county police department – as distinguished from fire and police departments operated by individual cities, special districts, or the state government. For example, Gwinnett County, Georgia , and its county seat, the city of Lawrenceville , each have their own police departments. (A separate county sheriff's department is responsible for security of the county courts and administration of

917-465: A few counties bear names of Native American , French, or Spanish origin. Counties are most often named for people, often political figures or early settlers, with over 2,100 of the 3,144 total so named. The most common county name, with 31, is Washington County , for America's first president, George Washington . Up until 1871, there was a Washington County within the District of Columbia , but it

1048-402: A few hundred in a century's time, and almost caused their extinction. The very dense soil plagued the first European settlers who were using wooden plows , which were more suitable for loose forest soil. On the prairie, the plows bounced around, and the soil stuck to them. This problem was solved in 1837 by an Illinois blacksmith named John Deere who developed a steel moldboard plow that

1179-400: A land area of 20,057 square miles (51,947 km ). The least extensive county is Kalawao County, Hawaii , with a land area of 11.991 square miles (31.058 km ). The least extensive county equivalent in the 50 states is the independent city of Falls Church, Virginia , with a land area of 1.999 square miles (5.177 km ). If U.S. territories are included,

1310-615: A large channel in which the Minnesota River evident today. The Red River of the North flows northward through a plain formerly covered by Lake Agassiz. Certain extraordinary features were produced when the retreat of the ice sheet had progressed so far as to open an eastward outlet for the marginal lakes. This outlet occurred along the depression between the northward slope of the Appalachian plateau in west-central New York and

1441-453: A large number of counties, and many Western states were sparsely populated when counties were created by their respective state legislatures. The five counties of Rhode Island and eight of the 14 counties of Massachusetts no longer have functional county governments, but continue to exist as legal and census entities. Connecticut abolished county governments in 1960, leaving its eight counties as mere legal and census entities. In 2022,

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1572-888: A matter of U.S. state law , so the specific governmental powers of counties may vary widely between the states, with many providing some level of services to civil townships , municipalities , and unincorporated areas . Certain municipalities are in multiple counties ; New York City is uniquely partitioned into five counties, referred to at the city government level as boroughs . Some municipalities have been consolidated with their county government to form consolidated city-counties , or have been legally separated from counties altogether to form independent cities . Conversely, counties in Connecticut and Rhode Island , eight of Massachusetts's 14 counties , and Alaska's Unorganized Borough have no government power, existing only as geographic distinctions. The United States Census Bureau uses

1703-415: A population over 100,000; 137 counties have a population over 500,000; 45 counties have a population over 1,000,000; and 14 counties have a population over 2,000,000. At the other extreme, 35 counties have a population under 1,000; 307 counties have a population under 5,000; 709 counties have a population under 10,000; and 1,492 counties have a population between 10,000 and 50,000. At the 2000 U.S. Census ,

1834-667: A substantial portion of global energy needs, and leave fertile land for food production." Unlike corn and soybeans, which are both directly and indirectly major food crops, including livestock feed, prairie grasses are not used for human consumption. Prairie grasses can be grown in infertile soil, eliminating the cost of adding nutrients to the soil. Tilman and his colleagues estimate that prairie grass biofuels would yield 51 percent more energy per acre than ethanol from corn grown on fertile land. Some plants commonly used are lupine, big bluestem (turkey foot), blazing star, switchgrass , and prairie clover . Because rich and thick topsoil made

1965-428: Is Lake . Words from Native American languages, as well as the names of Native American leaders and tribes, lend their names to many counties. Quite a few counties bear names of French or Spanish origin, such as Marquette County being named after French missionary Father Jacques Marquette . The county's equivalent in the state of Louisiana, the parish (Fr. paroisse civile and Sp. parroquia ) took its name during

2096-572: Is 343 sq mi (890 km ), whereas in Utah it is 2,427 sq mi (6,290 km ). The most extensive county or county equivalent is the Yukon–Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska , with a land area of 145,505 square miles (376,856 km ). All nine of the most extensive county equivalents are in Alaska. The most extensive county is San Bernardino County, California , with

2227-589: Is a garden consisting primarily of plants from a prairie. The originally treeless prairies of the upper Mississippi basin began in Indiana and extended westward and north-westward until they merged with the drier region known as the Great Plains . An eastward extension of the same area, originally tree-covered, extended to central Ohio . Thus, the prairies generally lie between the Ohio and Missouri rivers on

2358-514: Is an unusual case because it encompasses multiple entire counties in one city. Each of those counties is coextensive with one of the five boroughs of the city: Manhattan (New York County), The Bronx (Bronx County), Queens (Queens County), Brooklyn (Kings County), and Staten Island (Richmond County). Prairie In the U.S., the area is constituted by most or all of the states, from north to south, of North Dakota , South Dakota , Nebraska , Kansas , and Oklahoma , and sizable parts of

2489-498: Is below the soil surface and will re-grow from its deep (upwards of 20 feet ) roots . Without disturbance , trees will encroach on a grassland and cast shade, which suppresses the understory . Prairie and widely spaced oak trees evolved to coexist in the oak savanna ecosystem. Prairie ecosystems in the United States and Canada are divided into the easternmost tallgrass prairie , the westernmost shortgrass prairie , and

2620-500: Is either done at the state level or at the municipal level. In Connecticut and parts of Massachusetts, regional councils have been established to partially fill the void left behind by the abolished county governments. The regional councils' authority is limited compared with a county government—they have authority only over infrastructure and land use planning, distribution of state and federal funds for infrastructure projects, emergency preparedness, and limited law enforcement duties. In

2751-464: Is estimated at over 6,000, and in southern Wisconsin, where it is placed at 5,000. They completely dominate the topography of their districts. A curious deposit of an impalpably fine and unstratified silt, known by the German name bess (or loess ), lies on the older drift sheets near the larger river courses of the upper Mississippi basin. It attains a thickness of 20 ft (6.1 m) or more near

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2882-463: Is evidenced by the angularity of its grains (a bank of it will stand without slumping for years), whereas, if it had been transported significantly by water, the grains would have been rounded and polished. Loess is parent material for an extremely fertile, but droughty soil. Southwestern Wisconsin and parts of the adjacent states of Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota are known as the driftless zone , because, although bordered by drift sheets and moraines, it

3013-400: Is free from glacial deposits. It must therefore have been a sort of oasis, when the ice sheets from the north advanced past it on the east and west, and joined around its southern border. The reason for this exemption from glaciation is the converse of that for the southward convexity of the morainic loops. While they mark the paths of greatest glacial advance along lowland troughs (lake basins),

3144-399: Is greater than the populations of 41 U.S. states, and is only slightly smaller than the combined population of the 10 least populous states and Washington, D.C. It also makes the population of Los Angeles County 17.4 times greater than that of the least populous state, Wyoming. The second most populous county is Cook County, Illinois , with a population of 5,275,541. Cook County's population

3275-603: Is in cemetery prairies , railroad rights-of-way, or rocky/sandy/hilly places unsuitable for agriculture. States formerly with landcover in native tallgrass prairie including Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Missouri have become valued for their highly productive soils and are included in the Corn Belt . As an example of this land use intensity, Illinois and Iowa rank 49th and 50th, out of 50 US states, in total uncultivated land remaining. Drier shortgrass prairies were once used mostly for open-range ranching. With

3406-619: Is land and 29 square miles (75 km) (3.5%) is water. The western part of the county is prairie grassland, while the eastern part rises into the Cookson Hills , on the western edge of the Ozark Mountains . The Arkansas , Verdigris and Grand rivers all converge in the county, causing that area to be called "Three Forks." Webbers Falls Lake on the Arkansas River covers part of the county. The county seat of

3537-455: Is larger than that of 28 individual U.S. states and the combined populations of the six smallest states. The least populous county is Loving County, Texas , with 64 residents in 2020. Eight county equivalents in the U.S. territories have no human population: Rose Atoll , Northern Islands Municipality , Baker Island , Howland Island , Jarvis Island , Johnston Atoll , Kingman Reef , and Navassa Island . The remaining three islands in

3668-719: Is no formal level of government (municipality, public education, or otherwise) existing below that of the county in the state. In most Midwestern and Northeastern states, counties are further subdivided into townships or towns , which sometimes exercise local powers or administration. Throughout the United States, counties may contain other independent, self-governing municipalities . In New England, counties function at most as judicial court districts and sheriff's departments (presently, in Connecticut only as judicial court districts—and in Rhode Island , they have lost both those functions and most others but they are still used by

3799-416: Is not known if that is because of inherent differences in the species or because farmed cattle tend to be confined in smaller areas. Bison dung is a vital source of nutrients for prairie soil, spreads seeds, and supports over 1,000 insect species, including specialist dung beetles which cannot subsist on the feces of any other animal. In spite of long recurrent droughts and occasional torrential rains ,

3930-430: Is now buried under the drift. The most significant area of the prairies, from Indiana to North Dakota , consists of till plains, that is, sheets of unstratified drift. The plains are 30, 50 or even 100 ft (up to 30 m) thick covering the underlying rock surface for thousands of square miles except where postglacial stream erosion has locally laid it bare. The plains have an extraordinarily even surface. The till

4061-525: Is presumably made in part of preglacial soils, but it is largely composed of rock waste mechanically transported by the creeping ice sheets. Although the crystalline rocks from Canada and some of the more resistant stratified rocks south of the Great Lakes occur as boulders and stones, a great part of the till has been crushed and ground to a clayey texture. The till plains, although sweeping in broad swells of slowly changing altitude, often appear level to

Muskogee County, Oklahoma - Misplaced Pages Continue

4192-410: Is rarely a county responsibility, execution of capital punishment is never a county responsibility, and the state's responses to prisoners' appeals are the responsibility of the state attorney general , who has to defend before the state appellate courts the prosecutions conducted by locally elected district attorneys in the name of the state. Furthermore, county-level trial court judges are officers of

4323-400: Is similar to the Appalachian piedmont which though not exhausted by the primeval forest cover, are by no means so rich as the till sheets of the prairies. Moreover, whatever the rocky understructure, the till soil has been averaged by a thorough mechanical mixture of rock grindings. Hence, the prairies are continuously fertile for scores of miles together. The true prairies were once covered with

4454-562: Is simultaneously a city, which is a municipality (municipal corporation), and a county, which is an administrative division of a state, having the powers and responsibilities of both types of entities. The city limit or jurisdiction is synonymous with the county line, as the two administrative entities become a non-dichotomous single entity. For this reason, a consolidated city-county is officially remarked as name of city – name of county (i.e., Augusta–Richmond County in Georgia). The same

4585-830: Is the dominant habitat type in the Southern Canadian agricultural and climatic region which is known as Palliser's Triangle . It was once thought to be completely unarable, but is now one of the most important agricultural regions in Canada thanks to advances in irrigation technology. The dominant plant life in prairies consists of grasses , which may include 40 to 60 different grass species. In addition to grasses, prairies can include over 300 species of flowering plants. The Konza Tallgrass Prairie in Kansas hosts 250 species of native plants and provides habitat for 208 birds, 27 mammals, 25 reptiles, and over 3,000 insects. Some of

4716-506: Is true of the boroughs of New York City , each of which is coextensive with a county of New York State. For those entities in which the city uses the same name as the county, city and county of name may be used (i.e., City and County of Denver in Colorado). Similarly, some of Alaska 's boroughs have merged with their principal cities, creating unified city-boroughs. Some such consolidations and mergers have created cities that rank among

4847-652: The Alaska Constitutional Convention wanted to avoid the traditional county system and adopted their own unique model with different types of boroughs varying in powers and duties. In some states, these powers are partly or mostly devolved to the counties' smaller divisions usually called townships , though in New York, New England and Wisconsin they are called "towns". The county may or may not be able to override its townships on certain matters, depending on state law. The newest county in

4978-458: The City and County of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ; City and County of San Francisco, California ; and Lynchburg-Moore County, Tennessee A consolidated city-county may still contain independent municipalities maintaining some governmental powers that did not merge with the rest of the county. For example, the government of Jacksonville–Duval County, Florida , still provides county-level services to

5109-607: The Great Plains ecoregion. The Dust Bowl was a major reason for the Great Depression . Nomadic hunting has been the main human activity on the prairies for the majority of the archaeological record. This once included many now-extinct species of megafauna . After the other extinctions, the main hunted animal on the prairies was the plains bison . Using loud noises and waving large signals, Native peoples would drive bison into fenced pens called buffalo pounds to be killed with bows and arrows or spears, or drive them off

5240-603: The Mid-Atlantic and Midwest , counties typically provide, at a minimum, courts, public utilities , libraries, hospitals, public health services, parks, roads, law enforcement, and jails. There is usually a county registrar, recorder, or clerk (the exact title varies) who collects vital statistics , holds elections (sometimes in coordination with a separate elections office or commission), and prepares or processes certificates of births, deaths, marriages, and dissolutions (divorce decrees). The county recorder normally maintains

5371-919: The Midland Valley Railroad (1904–05), the Ozark and Cherokee Central Railway (1901–03, sold to the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway , Frisco), the Shawnee, Oklahoma and Missouri Coal and Railway (1902–03, sold to the Frisco), the Muskogee Union Railway (1903–04, sold to the Missouri, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway [MOG]), and the MOG (1903–05, which became the Texas and Pacific Railroad ). In 1874,

Muskogee County, Oklahoma - Misplaced Pages Continue

5502-566: The New York City Borough of Manhattan), with 72,033 persons per square mile (27,812 persons/km ) in 2015. The Yukon–Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska , is both the most extensive and the least densely populated county or county equivalent with 0.0380 persons per square mile (0.0147 persons/km ) in 2015. In the 50 states (plus the District of Columbia), a total of 981 counties have a population over 50,000; 592 counties have

5633-576: The Province of Maine founded York County . Massachusetts followed in 1643. Pennsylvania and New York delegated significant power and responsibility from the colony government to county governments and thereby established a pattern for most of the United States, although counties remained relatively weak in New England . When independence came, the framers of the Constitution left

5764-652: The Tulsa -Muskogee- Bartlesville combined statistical area . According to archaeological studies, prehistoric people lived in this area as long ago as the Paleo-Indian period (before 6,000 B. C.). However, archaeologists have made more extensive studies of those people known as the Mound Builders who lived here during the Caddoan Stage (A.D. 300 – 1200). One of the first Europeans to come to this area

5895-437: The U.S. Minor Outlying Islands ( Midway Atoll , Palmyra Atoll and Wake Island ) have small non-permanent human populations. The county equivalent with the smallest non-zero population counted in the census is Swains Island, American Samoa (17 people), although since 2008 this population has not been permanent either. The most densely populated county or county equivalent is New York County, New York (coextensive with

6026-582: The USGS counts Guam's election districts (villages) as county equivalents. The U.S. Census Bureau counts the 3 main islands in the U.S. Virgin Islands as county equivalents, while the USGS counts the districts of the U.S. Virgin Islands (of which there are 2) as county equivalents. Common sources of county names are names of people, geographic features, places in other states or countries, and animals. Quite

6157-552: The United States , a county or county equivalent is an administrative or political subdivision of a U.S. state or other territories of the United States which consists of a geographic area with specific boundaries and usually some level of governmental authority. The term " county " is used in 48 states, while Louisiana and Alaska have functionally equivalent subdivisions called parishes and boroughs , respectively. Counties and other local governments exist as

6288-689: The United States Census Bureau and some other federal agencies for some federal functions), and most of the governmental authority below the state level is in the hands of towns and cities . In several of Maine's sparsely populated counties, small towns rely on the county for law enforcement, and in New Hampshire several social programs are administered at the state level. In Connecticut, Rhode Island, and parts of Massachusetts, counties are now only geographic designations, and they do not have any governmental powers. All government

6419-601: The University of Tulsa in 1920. Northeastern State University opened a branch campus in Muskogee in 1994. K-12 school districts: State-operated schools in this county: The following sites in Muskogee County are listed on the National Register of Historic Places : 35°37′N 95°23′W  /  35.61°N 95.38°W  / 35.61; -95.38 County (United States) In

6550-471: The county seat ("parish seat" in Louisiana, "borough seat" in Alaska, or " shire town " in several New England counties). The county seat usually resides in a municipality. However, some counties may have multiple seats or no seat. In some counties with no incorporated municipalities, a large settlement may serve as the county seat. The power of county governments varies widely from state to state, as does

6681-478: The median land area of U.S. counties was 622 sq mi (1,610 km ), which is two-thirds of the median land area of a ceremonial county of England , and a little more than a quarter of the median land area of a French département . Counties in the western United States typically have a much larger land area than those in the eastern United States. For example, the median land area of counties in Georgia

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6812-451: The 50 states and District of Columbia. There are an additional 100 county equivalents in the territories of the United States . The average number of counties per state is 62, with a range from the three counties of Delaware to the 254 counties of Texas . Southern and Midwestern states generally tend to have more counties than Western or Northeastern states, as many Northeastern states are not large enough in area to warrant

6943-461: The 50 states and the District of Columbia. If the 100 county equivalents in the U.S. territories are counted, then the total is 3,244 counties and county-equivalents in the United States. The idea of counties originated with the counties of England . English (after 1707, British ) colonists brought to their colonies in North America a political subdivision that they already used in

7074-849: The Arkansas River throughout much of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, dedicated in 1971, opening the Arkansas and Verdigris rivers to year-round commercial traffic and leading to the development of the Port of Muskogee. Education was a high priority after the Civil War, with schools started by churches, private individuals, and the Cherokee and Creek nations. Higher educational opportunities were offered after 1880 when Bacone College , Oklahoma's oldest, began as Indian University in Tahlequah, but

7205-997: The British metropole : the counties. Counties were among the earliest units of local government established in the Thirteen Colonies that would become the United States. Virginia created the first counties in order to ease the administrative workload in Jamestown . The House of Burgesses divided the colony first into four "incorporations" in 1617 and finally into eight shires (or counties) in 1634: James City , Henrico , Charles City , Charles River , Warrosquyoake , Accomac , Elizabeth City , and Warwick River . America's oldest intact county court records can be found at Eastville, Virginia , in Northampton (originally Accomac) County , dating to 1632. Maryland established its first county, St. Mary's in 1637. In 1639,

7336-825: The Confederates from this area, although a few skirmishes occurred later in the war at Bayou Menard Skirmish (1862), several at Webbers Falls (1862), and the Creek Agency Skirmish (1863). The county was formed at statehood with land from the Muskogee District of the Creek Nation and the Canadian and Illinois Districts of the Cherokee Nation . A post office named Muscogee had been established January 17, 1872. The official spelling of

7467-738: The French inhabitants. Prairie ( pronounced [pʁɛʁi] ) is the French word for "meadow", formed ultimately from the Latin root word pratum (which has the same meaning). The formation of the North American Prairies started with the uplift of the Rocky Mountains near Alberta . The mountains created a rain shadow which resulted in lower precipitation rates downwind. The parent material of most prairie soil

7598-598: The Great Depression and was replaced by soybeans, wheat, feed grains, and grasses. Truck farming became important during and after World War II, leading to the development of a canning and food-processing industry. Other economic activities included oil, gas, and coal production, but these activities never reached the levels achieved in other regions. Sand and gravel pits, along with brick and glass manufacturing, developed and remained important employment sources. O. W. Coburn built an optical business that became one of

7729-595: The Osage. In 1824, the U.S. Army established Fort Gibson on the Grand River to dampen the conflict. The town of Fort Gibson that grew up just outside the fort claims to be the oldest town in Oklahoma. At the start of the U. S. Civil War, Confederate troops of the Cherokee and Creek Home Guards built Fort Davis, across the Arkansas River from Fort Gibson. Federal troops attacked and destroyed Fort Davis in 1862, driving

7860-546: The Three Forks. Although railroad officials intended to build a depot at the site of Fort Davis, the terrain proved unsuitable, so they relocated the depot, which they named Muscogee, farther south. They also began the town of Oktaha 11 miles (18 km) farther south, in the same year. Other railroads followed, such as the Kansas and Arkansas Valley Railway (1888, later the Missouri Pacific Railway ),

7991-655: The U.S. Census Bureau began to also count Connecticut's Councils of Governments , which took over some of the regional powers from the state's former county governments, as county equivalents. Territories of the United States do not have counties; instead, the United States Census Bureau also divides them into county equivalents. The U.S. Census Bureau counts American Samoa 's districts and atolls as county equivalents. American Samoa locally has places called "counties", but these entities are considered to be " minor civil divisions " (not true counties) by

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8122-473: The U.S. Census Bureau recognized the state's nine Councils of Governments as replacement for the state's eight legacy counties for all statistical purposes; full implementation was completed in 2024. The average U.S. county population was 104,435 in 2019, while the median county, which is Nicholas County, West Virginia , had a population of 25,965 in 2019. The most populous county is Los Angeles County, California , with 10,014,009 residents in 2020. This number

8253-479: The U.S. Census Bureau treats American Samoa's three districts and two atolls as county equivalents). American Samoa's counties are treated as minor civil divisions. Most territories are directly divided into municipalities or similar units, which are treated as equivalent of counties for statistical purposes: The U.S. Census Bureau counts all of Guam as one county equivalent (with the FIPS code 66010), while

8384-690: The U.S. Census Bureau. The number of counties per state ranges from the three counties of Delaware to the 254 counties of Texas . County populations also vary widely: in 2017, according to the Census Bureau, more than half the U.S. population was concentrated in just 143 of the more than 3,000 counties, or just 4.6% of all counties; the five most populous counties, ordered from most to least, are Los Angeles County, California ; Cook County, Illinois ; Harris County, Texas ; Maricopa County, Arizona ; and San Diego County, California . As of 2022 , there are 3,144 counties and county-equivalents in

8515-489: The United States is the city and county of Broomfield, Colorado , established in 2001 as a consolidated city-county , previously part of four counties. The newest county equivalents are the Alaskan census areas of Chugach and Copper River , both established in 2019, and the Alaskan boroughs of Petersburg established in 2013, Wrangell established in 2008, and Skagway established in 2007. A consolidated city-county

8646-410: The area is still very prone to extended periods of drought, which can be disastrous for the industry if it is significantly prolonged. Research by David Tilman , ecologist at the University of Minnesota , suggests " Biofuels made from high-diversity mixtures of prairie plants can reduce global warming by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Even when grown on infertile soils, they can provide

8777-402: The board. These positions may include county clerk , county treasurer , county surrogate, sheriff , and others. District attorneys or state attorneys are usually state-level as opposed to county-level officials, but in many states, counties and state judicial districts have coterminous boundaries. The site of a county's administration, and often the county courthouse , is generally called

8908-443: The census of 2000, there were 69,451 people, 26,458 households, and 18,467 families living in the county. The population density was 33/km (85/sq mi). There were 29,575 housing units at an average density of 14/km (36/sq mi). The racial makeup of the county was 63.73% White, 13.16% Black or African American, 14.88% Native American, 0.58% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 1.19% other races, and 6.43% from two or more races. 2.67% of

9039-462: The central mixed-grass prairie. Tallgrass prairies receive over 30 inches of rainfall per year, whereas shortgrass prairies are much more arid, receiving only 12 inches or so, and mixed-grass prairies receive intermediate rainfall. Wet, mesic, and dry prairie ecosystems can also form more locally due to soil and terrain characteristics. Wet prairies may form in low-lying areas with poor drainage; dry prairie can be found on uplands or slopes. Dry prairie

9170-410: The city and the county at least nominally exist, they are properly classified as counties in their own right. Likewise, the boroughs of New York City are coextensive with counties and are therefore by definition also not county equivalents. There are technically no counties in U.S. territories. American Samoa has its own counties , but the U.S. Census Bureau does not treat them as counties (instead,

9301-555: The competitive totals from Barack Obama 's efforts in the prior two elections. Trump went on to beat Joe Biden by an even greater margin in 2020 . In February 2022, Republicans held a plurality of registered voters in Muskogee County for the first time in recent history. At statehood, the economy was based primarily on agriculture and ranching. The main crops in the county were corn, cotton, and wheat. Agricultural service industries consisted mainly of cotton gins, grain mills, and stockyards. Cotton production declined dramatically during

9432-421: The county (which merely implements state law). A typical criminal defendant will be arraigned and subsequently indicted or held over for trial before a trial court in and for a particular county where the crime occurred, kept in the county jail (if he is not granted bail or cannot make bail), prosecuted by the county's district attorney, and tried before a jury selected from that county. But long-term incarceration

9563-504: The county is Muskogee . All elected officials and county services are headquartered there. As of the 2020 census, its population was 66,339. As of the 2010 United States census , there were 70,990 people living in the county. 59.8% were White , 17.5% Native American , 11.3% Black or African American , 0.6% Asian , 2.6% of some other race and 8.2% of two or more races . 5.2% were Hispanic or Latino (of any race). 16.7% were of American , 8.2% German and 7.3% Irish ancestry. As of

9694-463: The county jail.) In several southern states, public school systems are organized and administered at the county level. As of 2024 , there were 2,999 counties, 64 Louisiana parishes , 19 organized boroughs and 11 census areas in Alaska, 9 Councils of Government in Connecticut, 41 independent cities , and the District of Columbia for a total of 3,144 counties and county equivalents in

9825-546: The development of barbed wire in the 1870s and improved irrigation techniques, this region has mostly been converted to cropland and small fenced pastures. In southern Canada, Palliser's Triangle has been changed into one of the most important sources of wheat in the world as a result of improved methods of watering wheat fields (along with the rest of the Southern prairie provinces which also grow wheat, canola and many other grains). Despite those advances in farming technology,

9956-540: The disturbances of grazing and fire. Native ungulates such as bison , elk , and white-tailed deer roamed the expansive, diverse grasslands before European colonization of the Americas . For 10,000-20,000 years, native people used fire annually as a tool to assist in hunting, transportation, and safety. Evidence of ignition sources of fire in the tall grass prairie are overwhelmingly human as opposed to lightning. Humans, and grazing animals, were active participants in

10087-472: The diverse grasses and herbaceous plants. Prairies also depend on the presence of large grazing animals, particularly bison . Bison are important to the prairie ecosystem because they shape and alter the environment by grazing, trampling areas with their hooves, wallowing, and depositing manure. Bison eat more grass than flowering plants, increasing the diversity of plants in the prairie. Cattle are thought to prefer to eat flowering plants over grasses, but it

10218-431: The dominant grasses of prairies are Indian grass , big bluestem , side-oats grama , Canada wildrye , and switchgrass . Prairies are considered to be fire-dependent ecosystems . Regular controlled burning by Native Americans, practices developed through observation of non-anthropogenic fire and its effects, maintained the biodiversity of the prairie, clearing away dead vegetation and preventing trees from shading out

10349-579: The drift on the under rock. Further south, as far as the entrance of the Ohio River, the Mississippi follows a rock-walled valley 300 to 400 ft (91 to 122 m) deep, with a flood-plain 2 to 4 mi (3.2 to 6.4 km) wide. This valley seems to represent the path of an enlarged early-glacial Mississippi, when much precipitation that is today discharged to Hudson Bay and the Gulf of St. Lawrence

10480-457: The driftless zone is a district protected from ice invasion by reason of the obstruction which the highlands of northern Wisconsin and Michigan (part of the Superior upland) offered to glacial advance. The course of the upper Mississippi River is largely consequent upon glacial deposits. Its sources are in the morainic lakes in northern Minnesota. The drift deposits thereabouts are so heavy that

10611-513: The eastern tallgrass prairies were plowed and turned into agricultural lands, the prairie grasses with their strong root systems were destroyed. In combination with severe droughts that resulted in the Dust Bowl , a major ecological disaster in which winds picked up the dry, unprotected prairie soil and formed it into "black blizzards" of airborne dirt that blackened the skies for days at a time across 19 states and forced 400,000 people to abandon

10742-693: The escarpment to the lower, Lake Ontario . That gave rise to Niagara Falls . Lake Ontario's outlet for a time ran down the Mohawk Valley to the Hudson River. At the higher elevation, it was known as Lake Iroquois . When ice melted from the northeastern end of the lake, it dropped to a lower level, and drained through the St. Lawrence area creating a lower base level for the Niagara River and increasing its erosive capacity. In certain districts,

10873-435: The eye with a view stretching to the horizon. Here and there, faint depressions occur, occupied by marshy sloughs or floored with a rich black soil of postglacial origin. Thus, by sub-glacial aggradation, the prairies have been leveled up to a smooth surface, in contrast to the higher and non-glaciated hilly country just to the south. The great ice sheets formed terminal moraines around their border at various stages. However,

11004-479: The father of waters, like so many other rivers in the Northern states, owes many of its features more or less directly to glacial action. The fertility of the prairies is a natural consequence of their origin. During the mechanical transportation of the till, no vegetation was present to remove the minerals essential to plant growth, as is the case in the soils of normally weathered and dissected peneplains. The soil

11135-605: The federal government consolidated all of the Five Civilized Tribes agencies into one Union Agency, located just west of Muscogee. In 1889, a federal district court was created in Muscogee. In 1894, the Dawes Commission also established its headquarters there. According to the U.S. Census Bureau , the county has a total area of 840 square miles (2,200 km), of which 810 square miles (2,100 km)

11266-399: The four independent municipalities within its borders: Atlantic Beach , Baldwin , Jacksonville Beach , and Neptune Beach . The term county equivalents is used by the United States Census Bureau to describe divisions that are comparable to counties but called by different names: Consolidated city-counties are not designated county equivalents for administrative purposes; since both

11397-461: The general law of the state or by a charter specific to that county. States may allow only general-law counties, only charter counties, or both. Generally, general-law local governments have less autonomy than chartered local governments. Counties are usually governed by an elected body, variously called the county commission , board of supervisors , commissioners' court , county council , county court , or county legislature . In cases in which

11528-626: The geographically largest cities in the world, though often with population densities far below those of most urban areas. There are 40 consolidated city-counties in the U.S., including Augusta–Richmond County; the City and County of Denver, Colorado; the City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii ; Indianapolis–Marion County, Indiana ; Jacksonville–Duval County, Florida ; Louisville–Jefferson County, Kentucky ; Lexington–Fayette County, Kentucky ; Kansas City–Wyandotte County, Kansas ; Nashville–Davidson County, Tennessee ; New Orleans–Orleans Parish, Louisiana ;

11659-461: The grasslands of the Great Plains were not subject to great soil erosion . The root systems of native prairie grasses firmly held the soil in place to prevent run-off of soil. When the plant died, the fungi and bacteria returned its nutrients to the soil. These deep roots also helped native prairie plants reach water in even the driest conditions. Native grasses suffer much less damage from dry conditions than many farm crops currently grown. When

11790-417: The head of the gorges are now occupied by little lakes. The most significant stage in this series of changes occurred when the glacio-marginal lake waters were lowered so that the long escarpment of Niagara limestone was laid bare in western New York. The previously confluent waters were then divided into two lakes. The higher one, Lake Erie , supplied the outflowing Niagara River , which poured its waters down

11921-416: The ice of the last glacial epoch had retreated so far that its front border lay on a northward slope, belonging to the drainage area of the Great Lakes, bodies of water accumulated in front of the ice margin, forming glacio-marginal lakes. The lakes were small at first, and each had its own outlet at the lowest depression of land to the south. As the ice melted further back, neighboring lakes became confluent at

12052-489: The ice sheets advanced in lobes along the lowlands of the Great Lakes . Neighboring morainic loops join each other in re-entrants (north-pointing cusps), where two adjacent glacial lobes came together and formed their moraines in largest volume. The moraines are of too small relief to be shown on any maps except of the largest scale. Small as they are, they are the chief relief of the prairie states, and, in association with

12183-477: The ice sheets extended to the land sloping southward to the Ohio River , Mississippi River and Missouri River , the drift-laden streams flowed freely away from the ice border. As the streams escaped from their subglacial channels, they spread into broader channels and deposited some of their load, and thus aggraded their courses. Local sheets or aprons of gravel and sand are spread more or less abundantly along

12314-405: The judicial branch of the state government rather than county governments. In many states, the county controls all unincorporated lands within its boundaries. In states with a township tier, unincorporated land is controlled by the townships. Residents of unincorporated land who are dissatisfied with county-level or township-level resource allocation decisions can attempt to vote to incorporate as

12445-525: The land well suited for agricultural use, only 1% of tallgrass prairie remains in the U.S. today. Shortgrass prairie is more abundant. Significant preserved areas of prairie include: Virgin prairie refers to prairie land which has never been plowed. Small virgin prairies exist in the American Midwestern states and in Canada. Restored prairie refers to a prairie that has been reseeded after plowing or other disturbance. A prairie garden

12576-665: The largest in the nation and employed hundreds of workers. Other industrialists included the Buddrus family, who began Acme Engineering, and the Rooney family who founded Manhattan Construction. State and federal employment has long been important, primarily in education and veterans' services. Light manufacturing and health care as well as social services provide jobs for residents. The town of Taft has two state correctional facilities, Dr. Eddie Warrior Correctional Center for women and Jess Dunn Correctional Center for men. Steamboats had plied

12707-560: The least extensive county equivalent is Kingman Reef , with a land area of 0.01 square miles (0.03 km ). In some states, a municipality may be in only one county and may not annex territory in adjacent counties, but in the majority of states, the state constitution or state law allows municipalities to extend across county boundaries. At least 32 states include municipalities in multiple counties . Dallas , for example, contains portions of five counties, while numerous other cities comprise portions of four counties. New York City

12838-416: The legislative power to enact laws for the county; it has the executive power to oversee the executive operations of county government; and it has quasi-judicial power with regard to certain limited matters (such as hearing appeals from the planning commission if one exists). In many states, several important officials are elected separately from the board of commissioners or supervisors and cannot be fired by

12969-446: The level of the lowest outlet of the group. The outflowing streams grew in the same proportion and eroded a broad channel across the height of land and far down stream, while the lake waters built sand reefs or carved shore cliffs along their margin, and laid down sheets of clay on their floors. All of these features are easily recognized in the prairie region. The present site of Chicago was determined by an Indian portage or carry across

13100-507: The low divide between Lake Michigan and the headwaters of the Illinois River . This divide lies on the floor of the former outlet channel of the glacial Lake Michigan. Corresponding outlets are known for Lake Erie , Lake Huron , and Lake Superior . A very large sheet of water, named Lake Agassiz , once overspread a broad till plain in northern Minnesota and North Dakota. The outlet of this glacial lake, called river Warren, eroded

13231-686: The matter to the states. Subsequently, state constitutions conceptualized county governments as arms of the state. Louisiana instead adopted the local divisions called parishes that dated back to both the Spanish colonial and French colonial periods when the land was dominated by the Catholic Church . In the twentieth century, the role of local governments strengthened and counties began providing more services, acquiring home rule and county commissions to pass local ordinances pertaining to their unincorporated areas . In 1955, delegates to

13362-409: The median income per family was $ 34,793. Males had a median income of $ 28,670 versus $ 20,457 for females. The per capita income for the county was $ 14,828. About 14.10% of families and 17.90% of the population were below the poverty line , including 24.00% of those under age 18 and 14.70% of those age 65 or over. Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton 62%-33% in 2016 , which was a sharp right-turn from

13493-419: The morainic belts are of slight relief in comparison to the great area of the ice. They rise gently from the till plains to 50, 100 or more feet. They may be one, two or three miles (5 km) wide and their hilly surface, dotted over with boulders, contains many small lakes in basins or hollows, instead of streams in valleys. The morainic belts are arranged in groups of concentric loops, convex southward, because

13624-532: The name was changed to Muskogee on July 19, 1900. After the Civil War, the Five Civilized Tribes , which included the Creeks, agreed to new treaties with the federal government. Among other provisions, they ceded their western lands back to the government and allowed rights of way to railroads. The Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway (also called MKT or Katy) built a line into Indian Territory, near

13755-406: The nearly imperceptible slopes of the till plains, they determine the course of many streams and rivers, which as a whole are consequent upon the surface form of the glacial deposits. The complexity of the glacial period and its subdivision into several glacial epochs, separated by interglacial epochs of considerable length (certainly longer than the postglacial epoch) has a structural consequence in

13886-521: The next most common source of county names are geographic features and locations, with some counties even being named after counties in other states, or for places in other countries, such as the United Kingdom (the latter is most common in the area of the original Thirteen Colonies in the case of the United Kingdom, or in places which had a large number of immigrants from a particular area for other countries). The most common geographic county name

14017-424: The official record of all real estate transactions. Other key county officials include the coroner / medical examiner , treasurer , assessor , auditor , comptroller , and district attorney . In most states, the county sheriff is the chief law enforcement officer in the county. However, except in major emergencies where clear chains of command are essential, the county sheriff normally does not directly control

14148-417: The outer side of the morainic belts. Long trains of gravel and sands clog the valleys that lead southward from the glaciated to the non-glaciated area. Later, when the ice retreated further and the unloaded streams returned to their earlier degrading habit, they more or less completely scoured out the valley deposits, the remains of which are now seen in terraces on either side of the present flood plains. When

14279-448: The police departments of city governments, but merely cooperates with them (e.g., under mutual aid pacts). Thus, the most common interaction between county and city law enforcement personnel is when city police officers deliver suspects to sheriff's deputies for detention or incarceration in the county jail. In most states, the state courts and local law enforcement are organized and implemented along county boundaries, but nearly all of

14410-430: The population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. There were 26,458 households, of which 31.80% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.80% were married couples living together, 13.30% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.20% were non-families. 26.70% of all households were made up of individuals; 12.30% were someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size

14541-495: The present divides between the drainage basins of Hudson Bay , Lake Superior , and the Gulf of Mexico evidently stand in no very definite relation to the preglacial divides. The course of the Mississippi through Minnesota is largely guided by the form of the drift cover. Several rapids and the Saint Anthony Falls (determining the site of Minneapolis ) are signs of immaturity, resulting from superposition through

14672-410: The process of prairie formation and the establishment of the diversity of graminoid and forbs species. Fire has the effect on prairies of removing trees , clearing dead plant matter, and changing the availability of certain nutrients in the soil from the ash produced. Fire kills the vascular tissue of trees, but not prairie species, as up to 75% (depending on the species) of the total plant biomass

14803-582: The relationship between counties and incorporated cities. The powers of counties arise from state law and vary widely. In Connecticut and Rhode Island , counties are geographic entities, but not governmental jurisdictions. At the other extreme, Maryland counties and the county equivalent City of Baltimore handle almost all services, including public education , although the state retains an active oversight authority with many of these services. Counties in Hawaii also handle almost all services since there

14934-460: The rivers and gradually fades away at a distance of ten or more miles (16 or more km) on either side. It contains land shells, and hence cannot be attributed to marine or lacustrine submergence. The best explanation is that, during certain phases of the glacial period, it was carried as dust by the winds from the flood plains of aggrading rivers, and slowly deposited on the neighboring grass-covered plains. The glacial and eolian origin of this sediment

15065-523: The south and the Great Lakes on the north. The prairies are a contribution of the glacial period. They consist of glacial drift deposited unconformably on an underlying rock surface of moderate or small relief. Here, the rocks are an extension of the same stratified Palaeozoic formations already described as occurring in the Appalachian region and around the Great Lakes . They are usually fine-textured limestones and shales lying horizontal. The moderate or small relief they were given by mature preglacial erosion

15196-513: The southward slope of the melting ice sheet. When this eastward outlet came to be lower than the south-westward outlet across the height of land to the Ohio or Mississippi river, the discharge of the marginal lakes was changed from the Mississippi system to the Hudson system. Many well-defined channels, cutting across the north-sloping spurs of the plateau in the neighborhood of Syracuse, New York mark

15327-556: The state's French and Spanish colonial periods. Before the Louisiana Purchase and granting of statehood, government was often administered in towns where major church parishes were located. Of the original 19 civil parishes of Louisiana that date from statehood in 1807, nine were named after the Roman Catholic parishes from which they were governed. The structure and powers of a county government may be defined by

15458-527: The states of Montana , Wyoming , Colorado , New Mexico , Texas in the west, and to the east, Minnesota , Wisconsin , Iowa , Missouri , Illinois , and Indiana . The Palouse of Washington and the Central Valley of California are also prairies. The Canadian Prairies occupy vast areas of Manitoba , Saskatchewan , and Alberta . Prairies may contain various lush flora and fauna , often contain rich soil maintained by biodiversity , with

15589-513: The subglacial till was not spread out in a smooth plain, but accumulated in elliptical mounds, 100–200 feet. high and 0.5 to 1 mile (0.80 to 1.61 kilometres) long with axes parallel to the direction of the ice motion as indicated by striae on the underlying rock floor. These hills are known by the Irish name, drumlins , used for similar hills in north-western Ireland . The most remarkable groups of drumlins occur in western New York , where their number

15720-421: The substantive and procedural law adjudicated in state trial courts originates from the state legislature and state appellate courts. In other words, most criminal defendants are prosecuted for violations of state law, not local ordinances, and if they, the district attorney, or police seek reforms to the criminal justice system, they will usually have to direct their efforts towards the state legislature rather than

15851-425: The superposition of successive till sheets, alternating with non-glacial deposits. It also has a physiographic consequence in the very different amount of normal postglacial erosion suffered by the different parts of the glacial deposits. The southernmost drift sheets, as in southern Iowa and northern Missouri , have lost their initially plain surface and are now maturely dissected into gracefully rolling forms. Here,

15982-413: The temporary paths of the ice-bordered outlet river. Successive channels are found at lower and lower levels on the plateau slope, indicating the successive courses taken by the lake outlet as the ice melted further and further back. On some of the channels, deep gorges were eroded heading in temporary cataracts which exceeded Niagara in height but not in breadth. The pools excavated by the plunging waters at

16113-399: The term "county equivalent" to describe places that are comparable to counties, but called by different names. Louisiana parishes, the organized boroughs of Alaska, independent cities, and the District of Columbia are equivalent to counties for administrative purposes. Alaska's Unorganized Borough is further divided into 11 census areas that are statistically equivalent to counties. In 2024,

16244-456: The valleys of even the small streams are well opened and graded, and marshes and lakes are rare. These sheets are of early Pleistocene origin. Nearer the Great Lakes, the till sheets are trenched only by the narrow valleys of the large streams. Marshy sloughs still occupy the faint depressions in the till plains and the associated moraines have abundant small lakes in their undrained hollows. These drift sheets are of late Pleistocene origin. When

16375-579: Was Jean Baptiste Bénard de la Harpe . He was a French explorer and trader who discovered a Wichita village in 1719. By the end of the 18th century the Wichita had been driven away by the more warlike Osage , who used this as their hunting ground. Auguste Pierre Chouteau and other fur traders had established a settlement at the Three Forks . Early in the 19th century, Cherokee and Choctaw hunting parties made incursions that caused frequent conflict with

16506-412: Was 2.51, and the average family size was 3.03. The age distribution of the population was 25.90% under the age of 18, 9.50% from 18 to 24, 26.70% from 25 to 44, 22.60% from 45 to 64, and 15.30% 65 or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 93.30 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.90 males. The median income of households in the county was $ 28,438, and

16637-532: Was delivered to the Gulf of Mexico, for the curves of the present river are of distinctly smaller radii than the curves of the valley. Lake Pepin (30 mi [48 km] below St. Paul ), a picturesque expansion of the river across its flood-plain, is due to the aggradation of the valley floor where the Chippewa River , coming from the northeast, brought an overload of fluvio-glacial drift. Hence, even

16768-440: Was dissolved by the District of Columbia Organic Act . Jefferson County , for Thomas Jefferson , is next with 26. The most recent president to have a county named for him was Warren G. Harding , reflecting the slowing rate of county creation since New Mexico and Arizona became states in 1912. The most common names for counties not named after a president are Franklin (25), Clay (18), and Montgomery (18). After people,

16899-450: Was distributed during the last glacial advance that began about 110,000 years ago. The glaciers expanding southward scraped the landscape, picking up geologic material and leveling the terrain. As the glaciers retreated about 10,000 years ago, they deposited this material in the form of till . Wind-based loess deposits also form an important parent material for prairie soils. Tallgrass prairie evolved over tens of thousands of years with

17030-740: Was moved to the Creek Nation in present Muskogee County in 1885. Evangel Mission, a school at Union Agency for Creek freedmen, operated in the 1880s and now houses the Five Civilized Tribes Museum in Muskogee. A facility for educating visually impaired people opened at Fort Gibson in 1898. Later moved to Muskogee, it became the Oklahoma School for the Blind . Minerva Home, a school for girls in Muskogee, became Henry Kendall College in 1894, which moved to Tulsa and became

17161-472: Was stronger and cut the roots, making the fertile soils ready for farming. Former grasslands are now among the most productive agricultural lands on Earth. The tallgrass prairie has been converted into one of the most intensive crop producing areas in North America. Less than one tenth of one percent (<0.09%) of the original landcover of the tallgrass prairie biome remains. Much of what persists

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