Newspapers help spread vision of 
statehood

Oklahoma's earliest newspapers had tremendous influence, according to Judith Michener, an assistant oral historian with the Oklahoma Historical Society.
"There wasn't any other major means of communication. There wasn't anything but the newspaper," Michener said.
Those early newspapers, she said, published "a little bit" of everything.
"There was something for everyone. Everything from notices about the shipping of goods, to reprints from other publications, to news about the area and the government. The newspaper was a tremendous organ of communication."
And it had the ability to spread news like a prairie fire.
"Once the settlers came, then people started talking about statehood," Michener said. 
"Then the newspapers began talking about statehood. After that it took off."