PONCA CITY, a city of Kay county, Oklahoma, U.S.A., on the Arkansas river, at an altitude of i,000 ft., 90 m. N. by E. of Oklahoma City. It is on Federal highway 77 ; has a municipal airport and is an airmail station on the Chicago-Dallas route; and is served by the Rock Island and the Santa Fe railways. The population in 1927 was 17,025 (special enumeration of the Federal census bureau), in 1930, 16,136. It is the largest city of the historic Cherokee Strip; the trading point for six Indian tribes ; and the centre of the greatest producing "light"-oil area in the world, with a daily output of about 200,000 barrels (1928). The city has immense oil refineries (including that of the Marland company, with a daily capacity of over 5o,000 barrels) and casinghead gasolene plants; large grain elevators and flour mills; the most northerly cotton-gin in the United States; and various other industries. E. W. Marland makes his home here, where he maintains a 3oo-ac. bird refuge and game preserve, public gardens, public golf course, and a recreation park and country club for his employees. Nine miles south-west is "Ioi" Ranch (1 io,000 ac.)
established by Colonel George W. Miller in 1879 as a cattle range, and transformed into the largest diversified farm and ranch in the world and one of the most scientifically conducted. The Miller brothers hold an annual round-up at the ranch, and a "wild west show" tours the country and abroad. The site of Ponca City was visited by one of Lieutenant Pike's companions in 1806. The city was founded on Sept. 16, 1893, when the Cherokee Strip was opened to settlement, and was incorporated in 1899. Oil was dis covered in 1911. In 1928 the city had an assessed valuation of and bank deposits aggregating $6,457,000. The city owns its electric light plant, the profits from which meet all the expenses of the municipal government, and no general municipal tax has been levied since 1923.