Soddies In the western reaches of the Un­ assigned Lands where timber was scarce, many settlers built sod houses for initial protection from the elements. Most were small, about 12' x 12', and only tall enough to let a person stand upright. Walls were constructed from sod bricks, a foot wide and two or three feet long, held together by tough bluestem and Oklahoma City goldentop grasses. After extending logs On the morning of April 22. Capt. Daniel Stiles sur­ and planks from wall to wall, more veyed the treeless prairie around Oklahoma station. All blocks were arranged for a roof. Draw­ seemed quiet. One hundred years ago, on April 22, 1889, an backs included snakes and scorpions, The calm was shattered at high noon with an abrupt estimated 50,000 or more pioneers of all walks of leaks, and constant maintenance. jolt. Sooners, concealed in the brush along the river life crowded along the borders of the Unassigned bed. popped up everywhere and dashed for key lots. Lands to make the first land run in Oklahoma his­ Railroad officials, construction workers, and deputy marshals bounded from the railroad right-of-way and tory. On September 16. 1893. about 100.000 people partic­ ipated in the run for land in the Cherokee Outlet, Born Grown drove their stakes in the soil. Seminole Townsite sur­ At high noon the race began, a wild dash for making it the largest of all the land openings The veyors who arrived at around 11:30 a.m. by the regular In 1884, despite protests by the Cher­ western half, much of it drier and suitable only for 160 acre homesteads and smaller but more valu­ One young man who entered Oklahoma passenger train from the south, immediately started lay­ okee Nation, Congress approved the con­ grazing, remained largely unclaimed until the 1900s able town lots. They came by train, horse, bug­ City on the third train from Kansas de­ ing out streets and blocks. By 12:20 more than 40 struction of two additional railroads by scribed the scene when he arrived: “I gy, and even bicycle. There was one rumor that The lands of the Iowa and the Sac and Fox Indians tents already were pitched on the site of Oklahoma “aeronauts” planned to use a hot air balloon to the Santa Fe Railroad Company through were opened for non-lndian settlement on September kept looking for Main Street, but couldn’t the Indian Territory. One of them was 22. 1891. when approximately 20,000 homeseekers drop onto their claim. However they came, the see a street or anything that looked like a purposely diverted to run through the Un­ rushed for 7.000 quarter-sections of land At 1:15. Dr. Delos Walker, the first legal settler to men and women who made the run would long street. All I could see was a lot of tents arrive at Oklahoma City, pulled into the townsite in his assigned Lands, north and south. Com­ arranged in a haphazard way, much like remember April 22 as a day filled with drama and pleted in 1887, the line had water or coal buggy, his horse well lathered from the sprint. Behind someone had thrown a handful of white him came others from the 7-C Ranch, pouring over the excitement. stations at Beaver Creek (Alfred), Deer dice out on the open prairie.” The land run of 1889 was more than the Creek (Guthrie), Summit (Edmond), land in all directions. Then came the double-engined, world's greatest horse race. To the participants in Oklahoma (Oklahoma City), Verbeck 24-car special train from Purcell, arriving at 2:10 with the run, it was a last chance to win a piece of (Moore), and Dugout (Camp Norman) approximately 2,500 land-seekers ready to dash for land. For the rest of the afternoon, train after train the “Promised Land.” To the Indians of the ter­ On April 22, 1889, these sites drew almost half of the land seekers unloaded reinforcements in the battle for land. ritory, it was another brick removed from the By nightfall, Oklahoma station, only an isolated train making the run. walls of tribal survival. To Oklahomans a hun­ stop that morning, was a community of more than dred years later, it is a pivotal point in history, a The largest crowds making the run entered from the 10.000—a city bom grown. singular event in the story of their state. north The major embarkation points were the Santa Fe Railroad, Stillwater Creek. Skeleton Creek, and at Buffalo Springs on the Caldwell/Fort Reno Trail. A third land run opened the Cheyenne-Arapaho reser­ Surplus lands of the Kickapoo Indians were claimed vation on April 19, 1892. The eastern half, which in the last land run on May 23. 1895 contained most of the Indian allotments, filled quickly. The western half was used primarily for grazing. , Once an important station on the Chisholm Trail. Bak- er Ranch (as stage stations were cal l ed er by 1889 served the Caldwell/Fort Reno Trail is townsite was platted in 1890 • Stillwater W L Couch and the boomers established a prema­ Baker’s ture settlement on the banks of Stillwater Creek in Stage 1884. so the area was well known by large numbers of those who came from Kansas. The townsite, how- Station ever, was not platted until June. Camps River After the date for the • Guthrie The Shawnee-Pottawatomie lands were included in the land run was announced, Kingfisher land run of September 22, 1891, along with those of land-seekers from all parts the Iowa and the Sac and Fox. of the country and several A former stage station, Kingfisher tor a time was the foreign nations poured into third largest urban center in the Unassigned Lands southern Kansas. The big­ with 2,500 settlers There were actually two townsites, one called Lisbon, settled by "westliners" from the gest staging ground was the Cheyenne-Arapaho lands, and Kingfisher proper, set­ • Seward Walnut Creek camp near tled by "northliners" from the Cherokee Outlet Al­ Arkansas City, Kansas, lo­ though Kingfisher did not have rail connections at the Based on 1890 Federal census data, time of the run. it was the site of a federal land When the sun rose on April 22 1889 cated only three miles north office. Guthrie consisted of a water tank, two most black homesteaders making the run of the state line. There, section houses, and a depot, presenting settled in Kingfisher County north and more than 10.000 men. wo- an austere appearance that in no way re­ east of Dover and in the southeast comer men, and children waited flected the coming tempest. of Logan County. In Canadian County, for the great race. Thou- • Edmond To capitalists and speculators, Guthrie several black settlers claimed land near El sands more were poised was the choice location of the Run. It Reno and Mustang. Payne and Oklaho­ near another “boomer” was one of two sites with a land office ma counties had only a few black set­ stronghold at Caldwell. and was projected to be a crossroads of tlers, while Cleveland County had none. El Reno railroad development. It also was the The majority of blacks settled in towns, beneficiary of “mob mentality.” With principally Guthrie and Oklahoma City. '^adW all the talk about Guthrie, everyone as­ Scouted before the run by boomers, railroad workers, sumed it was the place to go. and speculators, El Reno was recognized for its val­ • Oklahoma City ue as a future railroad site in a rich agricultural re­ the western border, the major ports of entry were Not surprisingly. Guthrie drew the larg­ gion. Two groups of Kansas townsite speculators mile west of Kingfisher station on the Caldwell/ est number of sooners, known as the surveyed the town, one group hiring two old soldiers Reno Road and in the area of Fort Reno and the “8:00 crowd” and including a sizable to make a claim and then lease the land to them Darlington Indian Agency Charges of soonerism against one of the men were army of deputy U.S. marshals, judges, upheld, and a second run for town lots occurred in commissioners, revenue collectors, rail­ 1892 road officials, reporters, and adventurers. • Moore Well before noon they had claimed most of the best lots, held a popular election David L. Payne is known as the “father of Silver City On the east. William McClure's 7-C Rant on the on which of several surveys to use for Shawneetown Road provided a major point Oklahoma.” Following the collapse of C. C. Car­ the town plat, and erected a city of tents. Located on the south bank of the Canadian River in especially for people intent on getting penter’s first weak effort to settle the Unassigned the Chickasaw Nation, Silver City was an important . Oklahoma City. At 12:40 the first rider arrived from Lands, he headed the boomer movement. In July cow town on the Chisholm Trail and had a post of­ fice as early as 1883 the legal border on the east, followed by of 1880, after a second attempt to invade and set­ • Norman the first special train from the north at tle in the Unassigned Lands, Payne was arrested, Established by the Santa Fe as a telegraph station. 1:25. As the train slowed, passengers hit transported to Fort Smith, and fined $1,000. Moore was pre-surveyed by the Seminole Company, the ground rolling, coming up and dash­ Payne escaped without punishment and returned to but lost out for major development when the company ing for the best lots.