Forklift Masts Elk City

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

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

Elk City is now a modern trading center serving approximately 50,000 area inhabitants. The most essential industries to the city's economy are petroleum, agriculture, wind energy, tourism, manufacturing, health care and transportation. The city has had steady but slow growth during the past 10 years due to the opening and relocation of oil field services and drilling companies there. The number of jobs is expected to boom, with a 42% increase in employment anticipated.

Driven by the petroleum business, Elk City is known as "Natural Gas Capital of the World". Downtown Elk City is the site of Parker Drilling Rig 114, a 55 meter high structure that is the city's most prominent visual feature.

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