City of Bixby
Bixby Real Estate
Located just a short 15 minute commute from Downtown Tulsa and bordering South Tulsa, Bixby is one of the fastest growing communities in the Northeast Oklahoma area. Bixby offers a small town feel with convenient access to everything that Tulsa has to offer. The city is always growing with new businesses opening everyday, as well as a plethora of real estate options for families large and small.
Nature lovers and outdoorsmen will enjoy all that Bixby has to offer. Bixby is home to many equine facilities offering lessons and competition opportunities as well as numerous park and recreation areas.
Lake Bixhoma is just five miles south of the city on Leonard Mountain. Fishing and boating permits are affordable and can be purchased at city hall. You’ll find two boat ramps, picnic areas with charcoal grills and fire pits, as well as scenic walking trails. You’ll find catfish, bass and crappie are all in abundance on this small lake.
Along the Arkansas River Bridge on Memorial, you’ll find Washington Irving Park and Arboretum. The park is part of the Tulsa River Parks System and is just north of the Arkansas River Bridge. You’ll find picnic areas, walking trails, the Laci Dawn Hill Butterfly Garden, as well as memorials to the Murrah Building Bombing and World Trade Center Terrorist Act. Each year, the BBQ & Music Festival is held here each May, as is the Deutschesfest in September. Other parks in the area include Charley Young Park and Quail Creek Park.
As with any other Oklahoma town, Bixby loves their sports and offers numerous sports organizations and opportunities for children in the area from youth baseball and football to basketball, cheerleading and gymnastics.
If you’re looking for a hometown feel to raise a family in, Bixby offers that and more. Bixby has several neighborhoods and real estate opportunities, whether you’re looking for urban or rural property, to choose from. If you’d like to consider making Bixby home, contact us today at (918) 274-HOME.
The History of Bixby
Bixby became a town site when the post office was established there in 1899. Bixby is located in Muscogee Creek Indian Territory and was named in honor of Tam Bixby, the chairman of the Dawes Commission. The town was originally just 80 acres of swampy river bottomland.
In 1832, the American writer Washington Irving attended a U.S. Army excursion from Fort Gibson, Arkansas. The Osage and Pawnee tribes occupied the land at the time. Irving later wrote about his experiences in his book A Tour on the Prairies.
By 1904, the Midland Valley Railroad was laid and a depot built. The tracks split the town into two sections. It became incorporated in 1906, and city leaders were elected the year Oklahoma became a state in 1907. A bridge was built over the Arkansas River in 1911 and was considered the longest bridge in the west at the time.
Bixby has always been largely agricultural with wheat, cotton and alfalfa being the main crops. Later Bixby became an important region for shipping produce by rail, with cantaloupes, radishes, potatoes, squash, turnips, sweet corn and spinach being shipped throughout US out of Bixby.
Bixby has been the setting in two works of fiction. The first was Tex by S.E. Hinton (1979) and it was later adapted into a film in 1982, starring Matt Dillon. The Bixby High School and various locations around town were used in the production. The Midnighters Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld is a paranormal story of students at Bixby High School.
