accommodation. and also fighting a war in vietnam and dissembling about it. americaneekend, history tv is joining our broadband partners to showcase the history of shawnee, oklahoma. to learn more about the cities on our current tour, visit www.c-span.org. we continue now with our look at the history of shawnee. >> we took a driving tour of the city manager. >> thank you so much for agreeing to show us around here today. justin: i am happy to be here. thank you so much for joining me. >> where are we now? we are on the interstate, heading into town. justin: we are heading east into shawnee, and we will get off , to our west is oklahoma city, about a 35-mile drive from

shawnee. as we are crossing this hill, you can see it is fairly developed along the interstate. shawnee just went through a rebranding, and the line is great things on the horizon. coming into the community, we are quite noticeable. >> how many people live in shawnee? just in: 31,000. a little over 70,000 in the county, so our original population is probably 70,000 to 100,000, but the city proper you are right around 31,000. >> what are the economic drivers? who does it draw? justin: we are far enough from oklahoma city that we are an established community that has been in existence for well over 100 years. but we are close enough to oklahoma city that we benefit from the proximity. it, so we have a number of people who commute to oklahoma city for work, but our largest local economic drivers include

four area tribes, the pottawatomie nation is the largest employer. oklahoma baptist university, about 2200 students and several hundred employees. >> so right now, we are driving through oklahoma baptist university. tell me about the university. how does that play into the feeling of the city and the population of the city? justin: it plays in hugely. we are in many ways -- oklahoma baptist university has been here for over 100 years. it started on 60 acres of land and $100,000 that the community and the city helped raise in the early 1900's. so there is a strong bond and relationship between the city of shawnee and oklahoma baptist university. they bring lots of students. a culture, a different feel, and make it a civic community, which may set us apart a little bit

from other communities our side size in oklahoma that do not have a university. >> we are kind of leaving that more built up hustle and bustle area. we are starting to get more into the independent businesses and the downtown area. should we go to the downtown? justin: i would love to show you downtown. >> how has main street changed since you started living in shawnee? justin: main street has changed quite a bit. we have a mainstream improvement plan on the books were close to 15 years, and we did one small phase of that about 12 years ago, before i was here. power big effort to last few -- our big effort to last few years has been making good on a streetscape improvement plan, and we just finished that about a year ago. >> you are seeing the murals here. justin: you are seeing the murals, landscaping, new sidewalks. >> you have worked to revitalize, but you still have the past, like the ritz theater. justin: yes, the theater is just

an example. we have a lot of new buildings and groceries. there is a lot of availability for people to come in and purchase a property. >> down here under construction coming you have the old santa fe rail depot. justin: yes, which is a beautiful building. they are finishing the new museum, which is adjacent to the city, and they are rehabbing, which is under construction. >> train history is really important to shawnee. justin: yes, rails are a critical link and a critical reason why shawnee flourished. dozens and dozens of stops on a daily basis went through shawnee. >> should we go through some of the local business here? i know the mill is a huge part of shawnee. justin: yes, i would love to show you the mill. >> we are coming upon the mill now. how does the mill impact

shawnee's economy? justin: they are expanding. approximately 300 employees. they are a key employer, but more than that, they are a key part of our history, the mill and the ownership, staff are intricately involved in the community, major community initiatives that have been on board to the volunteer efforts and how they impact local churches and other organizations that they are involved in. a key branding initiative because the brand, shawnee mills, it seems that people in multiple states see and use their products. >> another big part of your populations is the citizen pottawatomie nation, right? justin: absolutely, the pottawatomie nation as well as three other tribes.

>> should we go out to their land? justin: let's do that. now we are crossing the canadian river. we're going to see the pottawatomie nation. >> what is the role they play here in your community? justin: they employ 2200 people, so they are huge. also there is the cultural aspect, which is also a major factor in the community. of course shawnee has a large percentage -- the population of a native american background, which could be pottawatomie or other nations as well. so they are just an interval part of the community. they are involved in major initiatives. they bring a lot of culture and activity and impacts to the community. >> we are passing through their land right now. we can see their tribal

headquarters. their cultural heritage center, which is a museum. justin: it is, and that just reopened. it unfortunately suffered a flood several years ago. from a city water pipe. that has been completely remodeled. i highly recommend visiting there if you have not had a chance. >> they also own a lot of businesses in the area such as casinos, and we passed a grocery store. justin: they do. they have two large casinos a , golf course, the grocery store. the grocery store is a very large enterprise. they also have some smaller markets, food markets in neighboring communities, tecumseh. macleod. their impact is not sell just on the city of shawnee, but really countywide. >> we are leaving citizen pottawatomie nation, and we are heading back to downtown. we have seen a lot of your community today. what is next for the community of shawnee? justin: shawnee is continuing to grow. we are continuing to focus on quality of life initiatives, on

developments, on improving the neighborhoods. i see the push by the city commission and the mayor really continuing in that regard. i want people that are not familiar with this part of the country to know that there are a lot of opportunities here, opportunities for younger people, opportunities that you might not get elsewhere because of our cost of living, the inviting nature of our citizenry here, so i just encourage people to get out and visit shawnee and other communities like shawnee around the country. >> thank you so much for showing me around the city. justin: thank you so much for being here. >> our cities tour staff recently traveled to shawnee, oklahoma. to learn about its rich history learn more about shawnee and , other stops on our tour at c-span.org/citiestour. you are watching american history tv, all weekend every

weekend on c-span 3. southern methodist university professor alexis on theen teaches a class abundance of the 1920's and the great depression. she argues low wages and unequal distribution of wealth hindered american consumers from keeping up with the high levels of economic productivity. she also talks about the demand for political solutions and president roosevelt's new deal program. her class is about 75 minutes. prof. mccrossen: we spent the last few weeks considering how americans adapted to abundance between the 1890's and 1920's. despite the efforts of producers, advertisers, retailers and others, the supply of goods continue to outstrip demand. this