World’s Largest Scramble for Free Land…..
September 16, 1893
More than 100,000 homesteaders descend on the 6,000,000-acre Cherokee Strip to stake their claim on 40,000 homesteads. This territory would become part of Oklahoma in 1907. The land had originally been set aside for the Cherokee Indians. However, U.S. President Benjamin Harrison forbade grazing leases in the Cherokee Outlet after October 2 of 1890, thus eliminating tribal profits from cattle leases, and the Cherokee agreed to sell these lands to the government. The settlers were known as “Boomers” and weren’t supposed to enter the territory until noon September 16, but many snuck in early becoming known as “Sooners.”