Oklahoma City lies along one of the primary travel corridors into Texas and Mexico. Oklahoma City features one of the largest livestock markets in the world. Oil, natural gas, petroleum products and related industries are the largest sector of the local economy. The city is situated in the middle of an active oil field and oil derricks dot the capitol grounds. The federal government employs large numbers of workers at Tinker Air Force Base and the United States Department of Transportation’s Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center.

LDS Population

LDS Members make up 1.14% of the population in Oklahoma City. The state of Oklahoma has 45,008 members, seven stakes, 57 wards, 25 branches, two missions, and one temple in Oklahoma City.

LDS History

In the late 1840s, George Miller, a former bishop who delayed going to the West, traveled from Winter Quarters to visit his son in Texas. He and two other members with him, Joseph Kilting and Richard Hewitt, found construction work available in the Cherokee Nation. They arrived in Tahlequah on July 9, 1847, and began to build houses. They also began to teach others about the Mormon faith, but antagonism forced Miller to leave in December. Hewitt and Kilting remained to work. In 1855, Orson Spencer and James McGaw visited the Indian Territory from St. Louis, Missouri, and on April 8, five more missionaries were sent from Salt Lake City, and four from St. Louis. The Indian Territory Mission was created and placed under the leadership of Miller on June 26, 1855.