Oklahoma History at The Corbly Corner

*In 1828, Congress gave the First Americans 9,400 square miles of western prairie in Indian Territory, in perpetuity, in preparation for their planned removal from Georgia.

*In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act which was signed into law by President Jackson.

*In 1832, a Supreme Court decision established tribal sovereignty which protected the Indians in Georgia from United States laws.

*In 1838, President Jackson, the Indian Fighter, defied that decision and ordered General Winfield Scott to forcibly remove 17,000 peaceful Cherokees from their land in Georgia and move them a thousand miles to the Cherokee Outlet. Four thousand died from exposure and disease along the Trail Where They Cried.

*In 1883, a cartel of wealthy cattlemen formed the Cherokee Strip Livestock Association and leased six million acres in the Outlet from the Cherokees who were required to move from that land.

*In 1892, outgoing President Benjamin Harrison ordered the livestock removed from the Outlet in preparation for the last great land giveaway in the United States.

*In 1893, incoming President Grover Cleveland declared the last remnant of the Cherokee’s land in the Outlet open for settlement by thousands of eager pioneers in the third, and last, Land Run into Indian Territory.

*The Land Run of 1893 is where this story begins.

The morning sun bore down unmercifully on the great mass of anxious homesteaders as they jostled their conglomeration of wagons, buckboards, buggies, and mounts into positions at the starting line. Now and then a driver yelled threats and cursed another driver who got in his way. Many men, a few women, and several young boys had threaded their mounts between the closely packed wagons until they stood at the starting line. Occasionally, a a foolhardy man rested on his bicycle. In one hour the soldiers would fire their guns, signaling the start of the Run. Wes and Clay had cupped all the horses the last drinks of water they would have for a few hours. They sat astraddle their sorrels, waiting impatiently. Patience and Tiana had checked the wagons for the last time. The cow ponies shifted their weight nervously in their traces. Now they only had to wait for the signal.

It happened without warning! Cannons fired all along the starting line! The explosions and simultaneous yells of the wagon drivers frightened children as they whipped their teams into a headlong race for the choicest pieces of land. Mounted riders spurred their horses to the front of the throng. Ladies whipped their horses, trying to keep their buggies abreast of the wagons. Dogs ran brazenly in the midst of the great onrushing crowd, barking their warnings to passersby. A riderless horse ran wildly along with the endless streams of wagons. An overturned wagon with its team of struggling horses blocked the way for those behind, its cargo strewn about, and its passengers thrown to the ground. Painful snorts and whimpering whinnies signaled that a horse had gone down somewhere. Bicyclists in vest shirts and derbies pedaled as fast as they could, adding an unsurreal aspect to this historic event. Great clouds of dust swirled aloft, falling upon those unfortunate enough to bring up the rear.

As far as the eye could see this great phalanx of dirty, sweating humanity raced into the Cherokee Outlet. The country’s last great land giveaway had begun precisely at twelve o’clock noon, September 16, 1893.