Background The Cherokee Outlet was one of three areas the
Cherokee Nation had acquired after resettlement to lands in present-day eastern Oklahoma in 1835 as part of the
Treaty of New Echota. Starting with the publication of a
Chicago Tribune article in 1879, a growing movement of those pressing for the opening up to homesteading of the unoccupied
Unassigned Lands located in Indian Territory – people known as
Boomers – began to gain widespread popular political clout. The Boomers' views had already prevailed in convincing the government to open up
public domain lands to settlement in the 1880s culminating in the
Land Run of 1889. After the issuance of
Benjamin Harrison's Presidential Proclamation, which forbade all grazing leases in the
Cherokee Outlet after October 2 of 1890 effectively eliminated tribal profits from cattle leases, the Cherokee came to an agreement to sell these lands to the government at a price ranging from $1.40 to $2.50 per acre the following year. Part of their agreement was that individual Cherokees were permitted to establish claims in the Outlet, an option many of them took advantage of. Four
United States General Land Offices for the run were specially set up to handle the event – in
Perry,
Enid,
Woodward, and
Alva. Infantry troops were stationed at those sites in an attempt to maintain order, while
Cavalry troops were stationed at encampments near Alva, Bluff Creek,
Chilocco, Clear Creek,
Hennessey,
Pond Creek, South Wharton, and
Waynoka. Despite that, '
Sooners' – those who started before the designated time – still managed to sneak in and secure some of the best locations, especially in the eastern third of the Outlet and at many of the townsites. With demand for the land far outstripping that which was available, a majority of the participants did not actually secure a claim for themselves.
Aftermath 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. While there were certainly success stories, not all land claimants found prosperity. Despite the opportunity afforded by free land, many of the new towns were overbuilt, while some farmers found their land claims unsuitable for farming, resulting in many claims being abandoned by the end of the year. ==Depictions in popular culture==