tŭlˈsə, city (1990 pop. 367,302), seat of Tulsa co., NE Okla., on the Arkansas River east of its junction with the Cimarron; inc. 1898. It became an inland port with the opening (1971) of the McClellan-Kerr Waterway, a 440-mi (708-km) system linking it with the Gulf of Mexico. Tulsa is the focal point of a major metropolitan area marked, since 1975, by a growing economy and population. It is an important center of the nation's petroleum industry with large refineries and plants that produce petroleum products and related equipment. Some major oil concerns have their business offices and research laboratories there. Mining, metal processing, machinery manufacturing, and the aerospace industry are also important. An extensive park system (which includes Mohawk Park) and well-planned communities characterize the residential aspect of the city. Tulsa is also a cultural and educational center with an opera, a large theater, art and history museums, the Univ. of Tulsa, Oral Roberts Univ., and an institute of American art and history. Tulsa grew as a cattle-shipping village after the coming of the railroad in 1882 and boomed with the discovery of oil nearby in 1901. In 1921 one of its black districts, Greenwood, was the scene of a notorious race riot by whites.

See J. S. Hirsch, Riot and Remembrance: The Tulsa Race War and Its Legacy (2001).

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