Broken Arrow, Oklahoma
Broken Arrow (referred to by locals as "B.A.") is a city located in northeastern Oklahoma. It is the largest suburb of Tulsa County and now the fourth largest city in the state (when not including the military population in the city of Lawton). The total population is estimated at over 100,000 residents; the median income for a household in the city was $53,507, and the median income for a family was $58,891.
The city name comes from a Creek community who established a new town site in a place where reeds for making arrow shafts grew plentifully. The town's Creek name, Rekackv (pronounced thlee-Kawtch-kuh), meaning broken arrow, was not "official" until the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway company built a railroad which ran through the area. MKT was granted town site privileges along the route. When it sold three of the as-yet-unnamed sites in 1902 to the Arkansas Valley Town Site company, William.S. Fears, secretary of the company, was allowed to choose and name one of the locations. He selected a site about 18 miles southeast of Tulsa and about five miles north of the thlee-Kawtch-kuh settlement and named the new town site "Broken Arrow."
The city has the third largest concentration of industries in the state, with industries ranging from aerospace, machine tools, plastics, and food processing, to metal fabrication, furniture, sporting goods, computers, and telecommunications. Some of Broken Arrow's largest and most notable companies and/or employers include: Blue Bell Creameries, Flight Safety International, Skycam, R.L. Hudson and Co, Braden-Carco-Gearmatic-Winch, Xeta Corporation, Addvantage Tech, Air Cooled Exchange, Gatesway Foundation, MicahTek, Inc., Baker Oil Tools, GAVCO Plastics, R.D.S. Manufacturing company, L-3 AMI Instruments, Arrow Concrete, Electronic Label Technology, Russelectic, A G Equipment,
Communications Graphics, Hanover Company, Paragon Films, Kenneth Hagin Ministries, Arkansas Valley State Bank, First National Bank and Trust.
Popular community events in Broken Arrow include Rooster Days, the Broken Arrow Civitan Christmas Parade, and the Rhema Christmas lights tour. Broken Arrow has been listed as a "Tree City USA" for over 5 years in a row. A recent national crime survey has also cited Broken Arrow as the 20th safest city in the nation, and the Police Department has won several national awards for their work in reducing the crime rate. The city was also listed as #66 in the CNN Money list of the 100 best places to live in the US.
