A Year: Day to Day Men: 22nd of April
Piercing Eyes
The Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889 began on April 22.
On March 3, 1889, U. S. President Harrison announced the government would open the 1.9 million-acre tract of Unassigned Lands in Oklahoma for settlement precisely at noon on April 22. Anyone could join the race for the land. With only seven weeks to prepare, land-hungry Americans quickly began to gather around the borders of the irregular-shaped rectangle of territory. By the appointed day more than 50,000 hopeful settlers were living in tent cities on all four sides of the territory.
The events that day at Fort Reno on the western border were typical of events that happened in other places of the border. 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 settlers streamed into the territory in wagons, on horseback, and on foot. 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.
By the end of the day of April 22, towns like Norman and Kingfisher had sprung into being almost overnight. Both Oklahoma City and Guthrie had established cities of around 10,000 people in literally half a day. The story that ran in the Harper’s Weekly, a New York based political magazine read: “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”.
Many settlers immediately started improving their new land or stood in line waiting to file their claim. Many children sold creek water to the new homesteaders waiting in line for five cents a cup, while other children gathered buffalo dung to provide fuel for cooking. By the second week, schools had opened and were being taught by volunteers paid by the pupils’ parents until regular school districts could be established. Within one month, Oklahoma City had five banks and six newspapers.
On May 2, 1890, the Oklahoma Organic Act was passed creating the Oklahoma Territory. This act included the panhandle area of Oklahoma within the territory. It also allowed for central governments and designated the city of Guthrie as the territory’s new capitol. By 1907, the area once known as Indian Territory entered the Union as a part of the new state of Oklahoma.