city, seat (1907) of Logan county, central Oklahoma, U.S., on Cottonwood Creek near its junction with the Cimarron River, north of Oklahoma City. It was founded virtually overnight on April 22, 1889, with the opening of Indian lands to settlement. The gathering place for homesteaders (a station on the Santa Fe Railway), it was named for Judge John Guthrie. It served as the capital of the Oklahoma Territory, and the state government was maintained there until 1910, when it was moved to Oklahoma City. In 1905 Carry Nation (Nation, Carry) brought her prohibition activities to Guthrie, which then abounded in saloons and gambling halls.

A service centre for a surrounding oil and agricultural area, the city has light industry, including the manufacture of furniture and oil-field equipment. Guthrie's Capitol Square is the site of a Scottish Rite (Freemasonry) Temple, the largest such building in the world. The Guthrie Historic District comprises many hundreds of buildings built between 1889 and 1907; the Oklahoma Territorial Museum, on the site of Oklahoma's first public library, houses an important collection of documents and artifacts. Inc. 1890. Pop. (1990) 10,518; (2000) 9,925.