The panhandle is a mysterious place

What's the historical reason it wasn't included in one of the other states? Why not have it be part of Kansas or Texas instead?

Slavery, like usual, was the answer.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compromise_of_1850
It has a lot to do with the US using Oklahoma as a dumping zone for first Americans and then over time taking even that from them piece by piece.
If your interested, Jonny Harris did a piece on it recently.
The Native American State That Never Was
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Meth and cousins is what gets done in those there parts.

I mean you could have said that about the rest of the visible map there as well
- Excuse me, but I happen to live in Oklahoma City and I really don't appreciate how accurate you're being right now...
- Dallas and maybe Wichita are fine, but for everywhere else, I agree
Meth and cousins is what gets the job done in those there parts.
Also dust bowls.

Oklahoman here! I’ve personally haven’t spent much time in this part of the state. It’s was historically referred to as “No Man’s Land” if that gives you any idea. The panhandle has a much more arid, high plains type climate than other parts of the state. I believe there are literal sand dunes out that way. Oklahoma’s highest point, Black Mesa, is in the panhandle. Im told Black Mesa is a great camping spot for star-gazing, but I’ve never been. As far as I’m aware it’s mostly right-wing but jobs living in that area. I seem to recall a few local news stories about people in that part of the state making a big stink about trans kids trying to use the bathroom and so forth.

Lol “right-wing butt jobs”
Black Mesa is where Halflife is set, if that helps?
- Black Mesa is the organization, IIRC. I had it in my head that the research facility was near Los Alamos, NM, but that might just be because I associate any theoretical physics research in a desert with Los Alamos.
As far as I’m aware it’s mostly right-wing (nut) jobs living in that area.
This is different from the rest of Oklahoma how?
- Well, not really. Oklahoma is a deeply red state, but it is more liberal in areas like Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and the university towns. I've always gotten the impression that people living in the panhandle were a different breed of conservative psycho though.
- Like all states, there is a gradient of political leanings, especially around cities. For instance, northern Virginia is nothing like the rest of Virginia at all. I imagine it's similar in Oklahoma, where the major population centers don't reflect the rest of the state at all.

Former Texan here: slavery is why that exists. They ceded the land so they could enter the union as a slave state.

Weddings where everyone sits on the same side of the church and some of the worst maintained roads in America.

lol never heard that expression before, brilliant
- I don't think I've ever been to a wedding in a church. Are the families supposed to split up?
Then the terrible roads must somehow be the fault of "those libruls', when there's not a liberal in sight as far as the crow flies for a couple of days at least.
- The Trump sign, flag, or bulletin board per square mile is unreal. I've driven through there a few times and I legit don't feel safe.
After driving around south east Oklahoma this weekend, it scares me to know that there are worse roads in the state.
- Can confirm. Source: Live in Choctaw County.

War crimes

TIL you can cross between the border of Oklahoma and Colorado, technically...

The Oklahoma high point is right near the border so you can see each state, the marker for the border is like a two minute drive from the parking lot for the highpoint trailhead.
You can go north from Texas to New Mexico

It's pretty much the heart of where the dust bowl of the 1930s was. Most of the people who lived there left and never came back. They moved to places like Bakersfield, California, which is a big part of how you get the "Bakersfield Sound" in country music with guys like Buck Owens and Merle Haggard.