Okla-homey
4/22/2007, 08:07 AM
April 22, 1889: First Oklahoma land rush begins
http://aycu14.webshots.com/image/13093/2006245228191968928_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2006245228191968928)
OK Centennial Land Run Monument in OKC
118 years ago today, at precisely high noon, thousands of would-be settlers make a mad dash into the the central region of the newly opened Oklahoma Territory in the first of several land runs to claim land.
http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/2530/v93s16a6wj.jpg
Waiting for the "Cherokee Strip" run near Arkansas City, KS. "Boomer" and "Sooner's" ancestors are pictured in the foreground
The nearly two million acres of land opened up to white settlement was located in Indian Territory, a large area that once encompassed much of modern-day Oklahoma. Initially considered unsuitable for white colonization, Indian Territory was thought to be an ideal place to relocate Indian people who were removed from their traditional lands to make way for white settlement.
The Indian relocations began in 1817, and by the 1880s, Indian Territory was became the new home to a variety of tribes, including the "Five Civilized Tribes": Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek,) & Seminole. These Southeastern tribes from GA, TN, MS, AL the FL panhandle were subsequently joined by plains and western tribes like the Cheyenne, Comanche, and Apache. The Osage, who had been here from the beginning, had lands assigned to them too.
http://img394.imageshack.us/img394/9163/ok27de.gif
On this map you can see the several Indian reserves and can see that land which would become the counties of Canadian, Cleveland, Kingfisher, Logan, Oklahoma, and Payne (except for western parts of Canadian and Kingfisher) had never been assigned to any particular tribe--thus it was ripe for the early pickings.
By the 1890s, improved agricultural and ranching techniques led some white Americans to realize that the Indian Territory land could be valuable, and they pressured the U.S. government to allow white settlement in the region.
In 1889, President Benjamin Harrison agreed, making the first of a long series of authorizations that eventually removed most of Indian Territory from Indian control.
http://aycu03.webshots.com/image/15562/2006235889245036848_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2006235889245036848)
A great American city would be built by those April 22, 1889 Boomers (and more than a few Sooners) who claimed land in what became Oklahoma County
To begin the process of white settlement, Harrison chose to open a 1.9 million-acre section of Indian Territory that the government had never assigned to any specific tribe. However, subsequent openings of sections that were designated to specific tribes were achieved primarily through the Dawes Severalty Act (1887), which allowed whites to settle large swaths of land that had previously been designated to specific Indian tribes. The Act resulted in the allotment of 80 acres to any Indian who was willing to come forward. What was left over within the reservations after all the Indian allottees got their 80 acres each was thrown open for claim and sale to whites.
http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/14/miltonfisher7ee.jpg
People of all ages and backgrounds participated. This photo is from the the "Cherokee Strip Run," but I imagine it is fairly typical of what you would see at each run, including the one we celebrate today
On March 3, 1889, Harrison announced the government would open the 1.9 million-acre tract of Indian Territory for settlement precisely at noon on April 22. Anyone could join the race for the land, but no one was supposed to jump the gun.
With only seven weeks to prepare, land-hungry Americans quickly began to gather around the borders of the irregular rectangle of territory. Referred to as "Boomers," by the appointed day more than 50,000 hopefuls were living in tent cities on all four sides of the territory. In sum, the contested territory would become the Oklahoma counties of Canadian, Cleveland, Kingfisher, Logan, Oklahoma, and Payne.
http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/4209/cherokeestriplandrun6ot.jpg
Another view of the Cherokee Strip run photographed right after the "boom." Note the passenger train in the background which had brought many to the starting line.
The events that day at Fort Reno on the western border were typical. At 11:50 a.m., soldiers called for everyone to form a line. When the hands of the clock reached noon, the cannon of the fort boomed, and the soldiers signaled the settlers to start. With the crack of hundreds of whips, thousands of Boomers streamed into the territory in wagons, on horseback, and on foot.
http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/6011/csrstb47ej.jpg
Boomers lined up at the starting line to receive their official government certificates allowing them to legally participate in the run. Of course, Sooners didn't bother with such formalities.
All told, from 50,000 to 60,000 settlers entered the territory that day. By nightfall, they had staked thousands of claims either on town lots or quarter section farm plots. Towns like Norman, Oklahoma City, Kingfisher, and Guthrie sprang into being almost overnight.
An extraordinary display of both the pioneer spirit and the American lust for land, the first Oklahoma land rush was also plagued by greed and fraud. Cases involving "Sooners"--people who had entered the territory before the legal date and time--overloaded courts for years to come.
http://aycu24.webshots.com/image/11503/2006018537512313913_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2006018537512313913)
On autumn Saturdays, that pioneering land run spirit is remembered and celebrated at the epicenter of the great 1889 Land Run on a patch of ground surrounded by 80,000 screaming Okies.
In some respects the recent settlement of Oklahoma was the most remarkable thing of the present century. Unlike Rome, the city of Guthrie was built in a day. To be strictly accurate in the matter, it might be said that it was built in an afternoon. At twelve o'clock on Monday, April 22d, the resident population of Guthrie was nothing; before sundown it was at least ten thousand. In that time streets had been laid out, town lots staked off, and steps taken toward the formation of a municipal government. At twilight the camp-fires of ten thousand people gleamed on the grassy slopes of the Cimarron Valley, where, the night before, the coyote, the gray wolf, and the deer had roamed undisturbed. Never before in the history of the West has so large a number of people been concentrated in one place in so short a time. To the conservative Eastern man, who is wont to see cities grow by decades, the settlement of Guthrie was magical beyond belief; to the quick-acting resident of the West, it was merely a particularly lively town-site speculation. -- William Willard Howard, Harper's Weekly 33 (May 18, 1889): 391-94.
It wasn't over in 1889 either. There were five land runs in Oklahoma:
1) Land Run of 1889 we celebrate today took place at high noon on April 22, 1889 and involved the settlement of the Unassigned Lands (most of modern day Canadian, Cleveland, Kingfisher, Logan, Oklahoma, and Payne counties).
2) September 22, 1891: Land run to settle Iowa, Sac & Fox, Pottawatomie, and Shawnee lands.
3) April 19, 1892: Land run to settle the Cheyenne and Arapaho lands.
4) September 16, 1893: Cherokee Strip Land Run (which is the one most photographed) The Run of the Cherokee Strip opened nearly 7,000,000 acres to settlement on September 16, 1893. The land was purchased from the Cherokees for $7,000,000.
5) May 3, 1895: Land run to settle the Kickapoo lands.
Regarding that second run, President Harrison issued a proclamation on September 18, 1891 declaring the "surplus" Indian lands which had recently been declared after making the allotments to the Iowa, Sac & Fox, Pottawatomie and Shawnee were to be open for settlement four days later, Tuesday, September 22, 1891, at 12 o'clock noon.
A conservative estimate places the number of settlers at about 20,000 surrounding the three reservations awaiting the starting signal for the rush to claim one of the 6,097 160-acre homesteads that were available. These former Iowa, Sac & Fox, and Shawnee-Pottawatomie lands were occupied in one afternoon.
http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/3341/landrushimage78ym.gif
Boomers Roll!
As an aside, your correspondent's great grandpappy Jim Lester ran in the that particular land run but subsequently lost his claim due to "sharp practice" by a feller who hooked him out of his claim by going into court and complaining that greatgrandpappy Jim hadn't made the requisite improvements on the 160 acre parcel which were required by law.
The feller prevailed and poof! -- Jim lost it when the feller bought it out from under him. Jim then loaded up his stuff and his family and drove to Okemah and bought the 80 acre allotment owned by a Creek freedwoman. Jim made a go of it on that 80 acres near Okemah and eventually raised seven kids there, one of whom was my meemaw.
After these early land runs in which a lot of people got hurt or killed, the government attempted to operate subsequent runs with more controls, eventually adopting a lottery system to designate claims.
http://aycu03.webshots.com/image/13562/2006247451795930488_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2006247451795930488)
By 1905, white Americans owned most of the land in Indian Territory. Two years later, the area once known as Indian Territory entered the Union as a part of the new state of Oklahoma.
http://aycu09.webshots.com/image/12568/2006226397452642828_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2006226397452642828)
http://aycu14.webshots.com/image/13093/2006245228191968928_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2006245228191968928)
OK Centennial Land Run Monument in OKC
118 years ago today, at precisely high noon, thousands of would-be settlers make a mad dash into the the central region of the newly opened Oklahoma Territory in the first of several land runs to claim land.
http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/2530/v93s16a6wj.jpg
Waiting for the "Cherokee Strip" run near Arkansas City, KS. "Boomer" and "Sooner's" ancestors are pictured in the foreground
The nearly two million acres of land opened up to white settlement was located in Indian Territory, a large area that once encompassed much of modern-day Oklahoma. Initially considered unsuitable for white colonization, Indian Territory was thought to be an ideal place to relocate Indian people who were removed from their traditional lands to make way for white settlement.
The Indian relocations began in 1817, and by the 1880s, Indian Territory was became the new home to a variety of tribes, including the "Five Civilized Tribes": Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek,) & Seminole. These Southeastern tribes from GA, TN, MS, AL the FL panhandle were subsequently joined by plains and western tribes like the Cheyenne, Comanche, and Apache. The Osage, who had been here from the beginning, had lands assigned to them too.
http://img394.imageshack.us/img394/9163/ok27de.gif
On this map you can see the several Indian reserves and can see that land which would become the counties of Canadian, Cleveland, Kingfisher, Logan, Oklahoma, and Payne (except for western parts of Canadian and Kingfisher) had never been assigned to any particular tribe--thus it was ripe for the early pickings.
By the 1890s, improved agricultural and ranching techniques led some white Americans to realize that the Indian Territory land could be valuable, and they pressured the U.S. government to allow white settlement in the region.
In 1889, President Benjamin Harrison agreed, making the first of a long series of authorizations that eventually removed most of Indian Territory from Indian control.
http://aycu03.webshots.com/image/15562/2006235889245036848_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2006235889245036848)
A great American city would be built by those April 22, 1889 Boomers (and more than a few Sooners) who claimed land in what became Oklahoma County
To begin the process of white settlement, Harrison chose to open a 1.9 million-acre section of Indian Territory that the government had never assigned to any specific tribe. However, subsequent openings of sections that were designated to specific tribes were achieved primarily through the Dawes Severalty Act (1887), which allowed whites to settle large swaths of land that had previously been designated to specific Indian tribes. The Act resulted in the allotment of 80 acres to any Indian who was willing to come forward. What was left over within the reservations after all the Indian allottees got their 80 acres each was thrown open for claim and sale to whites.
http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/14/miltonfisher7ee.jpg
People of all ages and backgrounds participated. This photo is from the the "Cherokee Strip Run," but I imagine it is fairly typical of what you would see at each run, including the one we celebrate today
On March 3, 1889, Harrison announced the government would open the 1.9 million-acre tract of Indian Territory for settlement precisely at noon on April 22. Anyone could join the race for the land, but no one was supposed to jump the gun.
With only seven weeks to prepare, land-hungry Americans quickly began to gather around the borders of the irregular rectangle of territory. Referred to as "Boomers," by the appointed day more than 50,000 hopefuls were living in tent cities on all four sides of the territory. In sum, the contested territory would become the Oklahoma counties of Canadian, Cleveland, Kingfisher, Logan, Oklahoma, and Payne.
http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/4209/cherokeestriplandrun6ot.jpg
Another view of the Cherokee Strip run photographed right after the "boom." Note the passenger train in the background which had brought many to the starting line.
The events that day at Fort Reno on the western border were typical. At 11:50 a.m., soldiers called for everyone to form a line. When the hands of the clock reached noon, the cannon of the fort boomed, and the soldiers signaled the settlers to start. With the crack of hundreds of whips, thousands of Boomers streamed into the territory in wagons, on horseback, and on foot.
http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/6011/csrstb47ej.jpg
Boomers lined up at the starting line to receive their official government certificates allowing them to legally participate in the run. Of course, Sooners didn't bother with such formalities.
All told, from 50,000 to 60,000 settlers entered the territory that day. By nightfall, they had staked thousands of claims either on town lots or quarter section farm plots. Towns like Norman, Oklahoma City, Kingfisher, and Guthrie sprang into being almost overnight.
An extraordinary display of both the pioneer spirit and the American lust for land, the first Oklahoma land rush was also plagued by greed and fraud. Cases involving "Sooners"--people who had entered the territory before the legal date and time--overloaded courts for years to come.
http://aycu24.webshots.com/image/11503/2006018537512313913_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2006018537512313913)
On autumn Saturdays, that pioneering land run spirit is remembered and celebrated at the epicenter of the great 1889 Land Run on a patch of ground surrounded by 80,000 screaming Okies.
In some respects the recent settlement of Oklahoma was the most remarkable thing of the present century. Unlike Rome, the city of Guthrie was built in a day. To be strictly accurate in the matter, it might be said that it was built in an afternoon. At twelve o'clock on Monday, April 22d, the resident population of Guthrie was nothing; before sundown it was at least ten thousand. In that time streets had been laid out, town lots staked off, and steps taken toward the formation of a municipal government. At twilight the camp-fires of ten thousand people gleamed on the grassy slopes of the Cimarron Valley, where, the night before, the coyote, the gray wolf, and the deer had roamed undisturbed. Never before in the history of the West has so large a number of people been concentrated in one place in so short a time. To the conservative Eastern man, who is wont to see cities grow by decades, the settlement of Guthrie was magical beyond belief; to the quick-acting resident of the West, it was merely a particularly lively town-site speculation. -- William Willard Howard, Harper's Weekly 33 (May 18, 1889): 391-94.
It wasn't over in 1889 either. There were five land runs in Oklahoma:
1) Land Run of 1889 we celebrate today took place at high noon on April 22, 1889 and involved the settlement of the Unassigned Lands (most of modern day Canadian, Cleveland, Kingfisher, Logan, Oklahoma, and Payne counties).
2) September 22, 1891: Land run to settle Iowa, Sac & Fox, Pottawatomie, and Shawnee lands.
3) April 19, 1892: Land run to settle the Cheyenne and Arapaho lands.
4) September 16, 1893: Cherokee Strip Land Run (which is the one most photographed) The Run of the Cherokee Strip opened nearly 7,000,000 acres to settlement on September 16, 1893. The land was purchased from the Cherokees for $7,000,000.
5) May 3, 1895: Land run to settle the Kickapoo lands.
Regarding that second run, President Harrison issued a proclamation on September 18, 1891 declaring the "surplus" Indian lands which had recently been declared after making the allotments to the Iowa, Sac & Fox, Pottawatomie and Shawnee were to be open for settlement four days later, Tuesday, September 22, 1891, at 12 o'clock noon.
A conservative estimate places the number of settlers at about 20,000 surrounding the three reservations awaiting the starting signal for the rush to claim one of the 6,097 160-acre homesteads that were available. These former Iowa, Sac & Fox, and Shawnee-Pottawatomie lands were occupied in one afternoon.
http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/3341/landrushimage78ym.gif
Boomers Roll!
As an aside, your correspondent's great grandpappy Jim Lester ran in the that particular land run but subsequently lost his claim due to "sharp practice" by a feller who hooked him out of his claim by going into court and complaining that greatgrandpappy Jim hadn't made the requisite improvements on the 160 acre parcel which were required by law.
The feller prevailed and poof! -- Jim lost it when the feller bought it out from under him. Jim then loaded up his stuff and his family and drove to Okemah and bought the 80 acre allotment owned by a Creek freedwoman. Jim made a go of it on that 80 acres near Okemah and eventually raised seven kids there, one of whom was my meemaw.
After these early land runs in which a lot of people got hurt or killed, the government attempted to operate subsequent runs with more controls, eventually adopting a lottery system to designate claims.
http://aycu03.webshots.com/image/13562/2006247451795930488_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2006247451795930488)
By 1905, white Americans owned most of the land in Indian Territory. Two years later, the area once known as Indian Territory entered the Union as a part of the new state of Oklahoma.
http://aycu09.webshots.com/image/12568/2006226397452642828_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2006226397452642828)