Oklahoma State Capitol in Oklahoma City
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The present structure includes a dome that was completed during 2002. The state capitol campus is famous for its oil wells and remains the only state capitol grounds in the United States with active oil rigs. The capitol building is directly atop the Oklahoma City Oil Field. Composed primarily of white limestone and Oklahoma pink granite, the dome is made of steel-reinforced concrete and reinforced plaster casts. In the Rotunda is displayed Chickasaw artist Mike Larsen's mural Flight of Spirit, honoring the notable 20th-century Native American ballerinas from Oklahoma named Five Moons.
Oklahoma's first capitol was originally located in the city of Guthrie. At noon on April 22, 1889 cannons sounded the start of the Oklahoma land run. In only six hours about 10,000 people had settled in what would soon become the capital city. Within only months Guthrie became a modern brick and stone town with municipal water, electricity, a mass transit system and underground parking garages for horses and carriages. Oklahoma's newly established state government had an election to decide where the capitol should be located. As a result, on June 11, 1910, the state seal was taken from Guthrie and moved south to Oklahoma City.
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