City of Jenks

Jenks Chamber of Commerce

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Jenks is known for its charming downtown and its high-energy lifestyle center, Riverwalk. Jenks hosts a number of wildly popular outdoor events including the Jenks America Food Truck Festival and the longstanding holiday tradition, Lights On!

Since Jenks’ founding in the early 1900s, Main Street has been an epicenter of activity and commerce. In the early days, the streets were dusty trails moving people, horses, and, eventually, motor vehicles through the community.

Jenks was founded as a stop along the Midland Valley Railroad Company’s tracks. While most traces of the town’s railroad founding are gone, a single train track still runs through Main Street today, still used to transport goods.

The oil boom at the Glenn Pool arrived, and Jenks' population exploded. The oilfield workers sought shelter, with tent homes popping up across Jenks. As the oil boom faltered in the 1920s and the Great Depression took hold, oilfield workers left and were replaced by an influx of Bulgarian farmers, who gave way to a new economy.

The twentieth century progressed. The dirt roads and carriages gave way to paved streets and motorcars. During this time, Main Street began to take shape and resemble the downtown Jenks visitors see today.

Throughout Jenks’ history, the city was plagued by the floodwaters of Polecat Creek. Floods in 1922 and 1923 were especially bad, covering most of the town, save for the railroad tracks, in water. Floods continued throughout the first half of the twentieth century and in May 1957, nearly breached the newly constructed levee, funded by a 1948 Jenks bond vote. After the construction of the Keystone Dam, flooding in Jenks became less of an issue than in the early days. In 1986, however, an abnormally large release of water from Keystone Dam nearly breached the levee, and the town was evacuated as a precaution.

Economically, downtown Jenks mirrored the rest of the nation. During the 1950s, a variety of hardware and clothing stores stood side by side with restaurants and offices as citizens of Jenks went about their work. As the 1980s arrived, downtown Jenks followed national trends as Main Streets across the United States struggled. City leaders, in order to reverse this trend, established an antique district, recruiting and encouraging antique stores to locate in downtown Jenks.

Currently, downtown Jenks is in the midst of another renaissance as the Jenks Chamber of Commerce, the Jenks Chamber of Commerce Community Foundation, and the city of Jenks partner with businesses, artists, and community leaders to create the Arts and Antiques District. Downtown Jenks also plays host to many of the Tulsa area’s most popular events including the Herb and Plant Festival and Art on Main. Today, downtown is home to boutiques, antique stores and malls, restaurants, and a variety of other merchants.

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City of Jenks

A 52 Weeks of Fun Fascinating Fact about Jenks

Jenks was named the “Antique Capital of Oklahoma” by the former first lady of Oklahoma Shirley Bellmon.

52 Weeks of Fun

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Jenks Chamber of Commerce

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A 52 Weeks of Fun Fascinating Fact about Jenks

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