Tuttle, Oklahoma
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tuttle is a city in Grady County, Oklahoma, United States. As of 2005, the city is estimated to have a total population of 5,365.
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[edit] Geography
Tuttle is located at (35.294963, -97.785683)GR1.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 75.5 km² (29.2 mi²), all land.
Tuttle is considered to be part of a rapidly growing area of northern McClain and Grady Counties known as the "Tri-City Area" with Newcastle and Blanchard. The town of Bridge Creek is also sometimes considered to be part of Tri-Cities.
[edit] Demographics
As of the censusGR2 of 2000, there were 4,294 people, 1,585 households, and 1,272 families residing in the city. The population density was 56.9/km² (147.3/mi²). There were 1,648 housing units at an average density of 21.8/km² (56.5/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 91.34% White, 4.98% Native American, 0.16% Asian, 0.09% from other races, and 3.42% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.21% of the population.
There were 1,585 households out of which 38.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 67.9% were married couples living together, 9.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 19.7% were non-families. 16.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.69 and the average family size was 3.02.
In the city the population was spread out with 26.7% under the age of 18, 8.5% from 18 to 24, 27.7% from 25 to 44, 26.4% from 45 to 64, and 10.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 97.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.4 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $40,396, and the median income for a family was $48,682. Males had a median income of $35,599 versus $25,850 for females. The per capita income for the city was $18,250. About 4.5% of families and 5.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6.0% of those under age 18 and 10.2% of those age 65 or over.
[edit] Sports
Tuttle has a long sports tradition. In 2005, the Tuttle Tigers earned a 14-0 record and won the Oklahoma Class 3A state high-school football championship for the second time in five years (their first title was in 2001). In 2006, the Tigers earned a 32-6 regular-season baseball record and won the Oklahoma Class 4A state high-school baseball championship (this was their second championship; Tuttle won the 3A championship in 1988). Both of these teams also took honors as State Academic Champions in their respective divisions for those years. Tyler Henson, a 3-sport senior high-school athletic standout was drafted in the fifth round of the 2006 Major League Baseball draft by the Baltimore Orioles. Also, former University of Oklahoma Quarterback and 2003 Heisman Trophy winner Jason White is from Tuttle. Tuttle's water tower announces "Tuttle - Home of 2003 Heisman Trophy Winner Jason White." A sign was added to Cimarron Road at the intersection of Main Street in Tuttle reading "Jason White Blvd," although the designation is symbolic only and does not rename the road itself.
The fast-pitch softball program has five state titles, in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 & 2001. The wrestling program also has five team state titles, in 1990, 1996, 1997, 2002 & 2003. Tuttle was also dual-state 3A champions in 1989, 1990 & 1992, and dual-state 2A champions in 1997, 1998 & 2002.
Tuttle's outstanding FFA program has also gained national as well as international recognition. The livestock judging team under coach C.L. McGill placed first in the State Interscholastics Livestock Judging Contest and went on to place fifth at the national contest in Louivelle, KY and traveled to Europe for the international contest. Also the meat evaluation and land judging teams have won state and national titles in recent years. Swine, cattle, and sheep showing has also been a long standing tradition for Tuttle. C.L. McGill and Carey Mittelstaedt have built an outstanding FFA program in Tuttle and have gained the support of the entire community.
Tuttle also has a rich cheerleading tradition. The varsity cheerleading team has won the Oklahoma Class 3A state cheerleading championship eight times (1990-91, 1993-98), and was runner-up in 1992 & 1999. Tuttle's varsity cheerleading team won the Class 4A title in 1989.
Tuttle has a long standing rivalry with the Newcastle Racers, mainly in football. Tuttle is usually the victor, although Newcastle occasionally beats them once or twice a decade. Another football rivaly includes one with the Blanchard Lions, although it has proven to be luke warm in recent matchups.
[edit] Geography
Tuttle's geography is in a low lying river basin along the South Canadian River. It is a farming community with large farms such as Braum's Dairy, Campbell Farms, Osborne Farms, O'Hara's Farm and Voight's Farm. These farms include wheat, some cotton, some corn, alfalfa hay, bermuda grass hay, and cattle operations. Braum's is by far the largest and can be seen all across the state and in neighboring states.
[edit] Schools
Tuttle has three schools: Tuttle Elementary, Tuttle Middle School, and Tuttle High School. Their colors are cardinal red and white, and their mascot is the tiger. Their logo is the double-T, taken from Texas Tech University.
[edit] CentOS Incident
Tuttle gained some notoriety in technical circles in March of 2006, after the current city manager, [1] Jerry A. Taylor, wrote a series of emails[2] to the developers of CentOS, a Linux distribution, complaining that they had "hacked" the city's website and made it inaccessible. Despite attempts to convince Taylor that it was simply a common misconfiguration by the webhost provider, Taylor threatened to call the FBI; even after finally realizing the hosting provider of the city's website was at fault, Taylor still blamed CentOS, despite CentOS not having caused the problem, nor being under any obligation to fix it, saying that with swifter help it "could have been resolved a lot quicker."
Tuttle's local weekly newspaper, the Tuttle Times, later covered the international reaction to the publicizing of his e-mail exchange with the CentOS developers.[3] Taylor was quoted in the article as not regretting threatening CentOS with the FBI, saying he was then referred to as "Mr. Taylor" and that it "got me the information I needed." Taylor then spoke poorly of free software, saying of CentOS that it was "a free operating system that this guy gives away, which tells you how much time he's got on his hands." He referred to his online critics as "freaks [...] that don't have anything better to do." According to the Tuttle Times interview, Mr. Taylor characterizes himself as an expert in computer systems stating that he has over "22 years in computer systems engineering and operation."
The Tuttle Times has published a letter to the editor from Johnny Hughes containing clarifications to statements made in the Tuttle Times article. [4]
Jerry Taylor, after having initially declared: "I have no fear of the media, in fact I welcome this publicity" - which prompted the decision from CentOS developer Johnny Hughes to publish the incident - apparently had a change of heart after "being flooded with emails from CentOS users". Jerry requested that The Register, one of the publications that picked-up the story, stop inciting CentOS users : "I think this is unjustified and would like for this to stop." [5].
Despite the controversy, Taylor was later given a $5000 salary increase by the city council. The Mayor said that he had done "a remarkable job". [6]
[edit] References
- ^ The City of Tuttle Web site (HTML).
- ^ CentOS News (HTML).
- ^ Tuttle times Story (HTML).
- ^ Tuttle times Letters (HTML).
- ^ Oklahoma man asks Reg to turn off the internet (HTML).
- ^ Tuttle Times - Council re-elects Paxton as city mayor (HTML).
[edit] External links
- City of Tuttle
- Tuttle City Schools
- Tuttle Times - a local newspaper
- Oklahoma Children's Acting Guild of Tuttle
- Braum's Dairy family farm is in Tuttle
- Tiger Safari
- Maps and aerial photos
- Street map from Google Maps, or Yahoo! Maps, or Windows Live Local
- Satellite image from Google Maps, Windows Live Local, WikiMapia
- Topographic map from TopoZone
- Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
