Guthrie is located in central Oklahoma in Logan County (of which it is the county seat). It is north of Oklahoma City on Interstate 35 and boasts one of the largest districts on the National Register of Historic Places including the Doric-style Scottish Rite Masonic Temple which occupies 4 blocks downtown. Other attractions include the Oklahoma Territorial Museum, the National Lighter Museum, the Oklahoma Frontier Drug Store Museum and the State Capital Publishing Museum.

The town served as Oklahoma's territorial Capital from 1889 to 1910 and is sometimes refered to as the "Williamsburg of the West." Old-time Hollywood cowboy star Tom Mix once tended bar here.