Downtown Henryetta

Henryetta's compact downtown along Main Street preserves the brick commercial architecture of an Oklahoma coal-boom town. The buildings are solid, unpretentious, and largely intact — a streetscape that has changed less than most American small-town downtowns from a century ago. A few local businesses, diners, and the Mexican restaurants that have become staples of Oklahoma small-town dining occupy the storefronts.

The Henryetta Public Library and the Okmulgee County Courthouse area give the town a civic center. Walking the few blocks of Main Street takes less than 20 minutes, but it is a genuine piece of early 20th-century Oklahoma townscape. The best time to visit is during the Freedom Festival in early July, when the downtown comes alive with the annual parade and the streets fill with local families.

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Henryetta was platted in 1900 and named after Henry Beard and his daughter Etta — a compromise between two rival townsite promoters who couldn't agree on a name. The town grew quickly on the strength of coal mining and later oil, and the Main Street commercial buildings from the 1910s and 1920s still give the downtown its character. The city limits sign on Highway 75 says it all: "Henryetta — Home of World Champion Cowboys Jim Shoulders and Troy Aikman." Shoulders won the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association World All-Around title seven times in the 1950s and 60s; Aikman quarterbacked the Dallas Cowboys to three Super Bowl wins in the 1990s. Two different kinds of cowboy, one small Oklahoma town.