Oakhurst, OK

At the 2020 census, Oakhurst was a Creek and Tulsa County census-designated place of 2,262 people, established in 1918 on the western edge of Tulsa. It is wedged between Tulsa, Sand Springs, and Sapulpa, with Interstate 44 running through and exits 221 and 222 serving the community. That gives Oakhurst a curious shape: it feels tied to a major metro, but its map still follows the older pattern of a named settlement straddling a county line.

The county line shows up most clearly in school mornings. The Tulsa County side is mainly in Tulsa Public Schools, with some homes in Berryhill Public Schools; the Creek County side is divided between Tulsa and Sapulpa districts. The highway makes those lines easy to cross and hard to ignore. Oakhurst's local story comes from position: a 1918 place riding the highway between three cities and divided among three school districts. It is a small Oklahoma community whose boundaries are more complicated than its name suggests.