Bixby, OK

The Arkansas River still divides Bixby's original town center on the south from much of the city to the north. That geography connects the city's agricultural past to its present public spaces. The Midland Valley Railroad reached Bixby in 1904 and opened outside markets to cotton, grain, pecans, livestock, and produce grown in the river bottomland. A good corn harvest inspired the first gathering behind today's Green Corn Festival in 1947; the city calendar schedules the 2026 festival for June 24-27, and Charley Young Park remains its downtown setting. Across the river, the wooded 32.5-acre Washington Irving Park provides walking trails, picnic space, and an amphitheater. Bentley Park concentrates youth sports and a splash pad on 115 acres, while Lake Bixhoma, about five miles southeast of town, permits fishing and low-wake boating.

Downtown's Bixby Library adds public computers, Wi-Fi, a meeting room, laptop use, story times, teen programs, and evening hours twice a week. Rapid population growth now supplies a different scale for those longstanding institutions. Bixby's 2025 population estimate was 32,766, 14.0 percent above its 2020 estimates base; the 2020 census count was 28,609. During 2020-2024, 29.8 percent of residents were under age 18 and the average household size was 2.76. Owner occupancy reached 76.0 percent, with a median owner-occupied value of $334,200 and median gross rent of $1,393. The same estimates put median household income at $104,404 and workers' mean travel time at 24.2 minutes. The river, old rail-and-produce economy, festival grounds, sports fields, and small downtown library remain visible in ordinary routines even as Bixby functions as a Tulsa-area residential city.