Land Run of 1893

Boomer camp at Arkansas City, Kansas waiting for Land Run of 1893

Horses rush forward during the 1889 run.

The Land Run of 1893, also known as the Cherokee Strip Land Run, marked the opening to settlement of the Cherokee Outlet, in what would become the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The run began at noon on September 16, 1893, with more than 100,000 participants hoping to claim land. The land offices for the run were set up in Perry, Enid, Woodward, and Alva with over 6.5 million acres (26,000 km²) of land. It was the largest land run in United States history.^[1]

The counties of Kay, Grant, Woods, Woodward, Garfield, Noble, and Pawnee were named following the run. Prior to the run, these seven counties had been assigned the letters K through Q, respectively. Upon Oklahoma's statehood in 1907, four additional counties—Alfalfa, Ellis, Harper, and Major—were created in the Cherokee Outlet using existing land from Woods, Kay, and Woodward counties.^[2]

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  Settlers await the opening of the Cherokee Outlet.

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  The Garfield County land office now sits in the Humphrey Heritage Village at the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center in Enid, Oklahoma.

In popular culture

• The 1889 and 1893 Oklahoma Land Runs were portrayed in Edna Ferber's 1929 novel, Cimarron, as well as the 1931 and 1960 films of the same name based on the novel.
• The Cherokee Strip Land Run of 1893 was portrayed in the films Tumbleweeds (1925) and Far and Away (1992).
• The Cherokee Strip Land Run of 1893 was also depicted in 1969 novel The Thundering Prairie by M. A. Hancock.

See also

• Land Run of 1889
• Land Run of 1891
• Land Run of 1892
• Land Run of 1895

References

1. Green, Donald E., "Settlement Patterns," Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture (accessed June 10, 2010).
2. Oklahoma Land Openings 1889-1903 (accessed June 10, 2010).

External links

• Cherokee Outlet Opening—Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture