business
culture and tourism
Ardmore is the hub
of a ten-county region known as Lake and Trail Country in South Central
Oklahoma located 90 miles - 140 km - from both Oklahoma City and Dallas
Forth Worth. It was named after the Philadelphia historic main line town and a
town in County Waterford, Ireland.
Ardmore is the word for Hills or High Grounds in Irish
Founded in the summer of 1887 during construction of the Santa Fe Railroad,
Ardmore grew over the years into a trading outpost with its cotton growing
fields and the world's largest inland cotton port.
Oil
Discovery nearby in 1913 led to entrepreneurs and
wildcatters flooding the area, becoming the largest oil-producing county in
Oklahoma and energy center for the region.
Geography Ardmore is located south of the Arbuckle
Mountains, an ancient, eroded range spanning some 62 mi - 100 km
- across southern Oklahoma. The geology includes uplifted and folded ridges
visible within the shoreline of some of the surrounding lakes. The city of
Ardmore is part of the Washita and Red River watersheds, just north of Lake
Murray which flows into the western reaches of Lake Texoma.
Transport the historic Santa Fe depot in downtown Ardmore links
the town with Chicago, Kansas City, Oklahoma City, Dallas-Fort Worth and DFW
Airport via the Heartland Flyer and Trinity Railway Express.
Southern Tech built a
state-of-the-art Engineering Technology Building to house programs which
directly address the employment needs of manufacturing companies. The Bio Technology
Program is a hands-on opportunity to learn and experience biotechnology
techniques and applications in human health, agriculture, environmental
science, forensics and pharmaceutical production.