Clearing Out the Cobwebs of Confusion
(Reworked episode broadcast on April 24, 2002)
April 25, 2001
 Listen  Historian's Notes Resources Transcript
Historian's Notes
Even if you've lived in Oklahoma for only a short time the date April 22, 1889 should be special to
you. This week's Almanac naturally deals with the first land run. Although
the land runs affected almost everyone in the state and continue to do so to this day, not many people
are clear about how they worked. This episode of the Almanac was intended to
help people better understand how the runs worked and how land was acquired by the participants.
Resources
I couldn't find one Oklahoma history book that provided an adequate description of exactly
how the land runs worked so I looked through a wide variety until I found
all of the information I needed.
Almanac Transcript
Hello, I'm Steven Kite welcoming you to the Oklahoma Audio Almanac where
we turn the pages of history to bring you the stories of our state's past.
Clearing out the cobwebs of confusion this week on the Almanac.
It was in this week in 1889 that the first Oklahoma land run occurred. The land runs of Oklahoma are
an often discussed but little understood phenomenon of our state. Few people completely understand how
the runs worked or what areas were settled in that manner. Not all of Oklahoma was settled by a land run;
there were five separate land runs occurring in 1889, 1891, 1892, 1893 and 1895. Other sections of land
were opened using lottery, sealed-bids, or allotment methods. The entire eastern half of the state was
left unaffected by these land openings. All of the land runs and openings occurred in the western half
of the state in what would soon turn into Oklahoma Territory.
On April 22, 1889 the first of the five land runs, the opening of the unassigned lands, occurred as
thousands of hopeful settlers lined up around a somewhat rectangular section of land in the middle of
Oklahoma. At twelve noon cannons were fired and the crowd surged forward.
Before the opening government surveyors had sectioned the land into squares of 160 acres. Rocks inscribed
and left by the surveyors as boundary markers were used by the land runners to identify exactly what section
of land they were claiming. As settlers claimed the homesteads the first thing they would do was locate
these boundary rocks and write down the information locating their claim. Next was a long wait in line
at land offices as officials took the information provided by the homesteader and officially registered
the claim.
This process was exciting but confusing and not very fair. While waiting in line at a land office,
a person's land could be taken by a claim jumper who,if quicker to register, would then have legal claim.
In some cases two people claimed land at the same time, often without knowing it until both had registered
at different land offices. Such disputes continued on in courts decades after the runs occurred. And then
there were the infamous "Sooners": people who hid out on claims earlier than legal, popping out to claim
the ground after the starting cannons fired.
After five separate land runs, each one providing mass chaos and confusion, the government opted for
less exciting but more efficient means of distributing lands. Future land openings in 1901, 1904 and 1906
were conducted using lotteries or sealed bid auctions.
The first great land run of Oklahoma occurring this week in 1889.
I'm Steven Kite.
The Oklahoma Audio Almanac is a production of the OSU Library and Oklahoma's
Public Radio.
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