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## April 2024

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### U.S. Census Bureau History: 1889 Oklahoma Land Rush

An 1894 map depicts the Oklahoma and Indian Territories after land rushes conducted in 1889, 1891, and 1892.Between 1889 and 1906, the federal government conducted land rushes, a lottery, and auction to distributeland for settlement in the Oklahoma Territory.Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

At noon on April 22, 1889, the blast of a starting gun echoed across Fort Reno in Oklahoma, signaling the official start of the first Oklahoma Land Rush.  Approximately 50,000 men, women and children raced one another across the plains hoping to claim a parcel of land in a 1.9 million-acre tract of "Indian Territory" that had not been assigned to an American Indian tribe.  When the rush ended, tents and cooking fires marked the settlement of Oklahoma City, Kingfisher, El Reno, Norman, Guthrie and Stillwater and many other Oklahoma towns.  The 1889 and subsequent land rushes helped the Oklahoma and Indian Territories' population grow from  258,657 in 1890 to 1,414,177 at the time of the 1907 special census.  On November 16, 1907, Oklahoma became our nation's 46th state.

The United States purchased the land that would eventually become the state of Oklahoma from France with the signing of the Louisiana Purchase Treaty on April 30, 1803.  For $15 million, France sold its claim to more than 828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River.  Present-day Oklahoma became part of the Missouri Territory in 1812, and of the Arkansas Territory in 1819.  In 1820, the federal government began forcibly moving American Indians from the southeastern United States to "Indian Territory" in the western region of the Arkansas Territory.  The forced relocation of American Indians (known as the "Trail of Tears") expanded rapidly after passage of the 1830 Indian Removal Act.  Over the next two decades, as many as 100,000 American Indians were forced to resettle on reservations assigned by the federal government.  In the 1870s, leaders of the "Boomer Movement" pushed the federal government should allow settlers to move onto land in Indian Territory that was not officially assigned to an American Indian Tribe.  In 1884, the U.S. District Court in Topeka, KS, ruled that unassigned land in Indian Territory could be settled.  Three years later, the 1887 Dawes Act reassigned tribal lands to individual American Indian households and allowed tribes to sell large swaths of vacant land back to the federal government.

In 1889, the federal government identified nearly 1.9 million acres of unassigned land.  President Benjamin Harrison signed Proclamation 288—Opening to Settlement Certain Lands in the Indian Territory on March 23, 1889, setting the stage for a race for land—or "land rush"—the following month.  In early April 1889, thousands of people seeking land crowded into towns bordering the Unassigned Territory that served as the official starting points for the April 22 race.  To the north, settlers who had gathered in Arkansas City and Caldwell, OK, received permission to begin an orderly passage through Cherokee Territory with a U.S. Army escort beginning on April 18, 1889.  In contrast, land seekers at the jumping-off point near Fort Reno to the south took part in a frantic and chaotic dash into the Unassigned Territory once a cannon shot announced the land rush's start.  Still other settlers traveled into the territory in relative comfort aboard the Santa Fe Railway.  Passengers disembarked at desolate station stops, purchased small town plots and began the task of building cities.  When the sun set on April 22, the cities of Guthrie and Oklahoma City were home to 10,000 or more settlers.  Much to the chagrin of many rush participants (including legal government employees and illegal settlers violating the rush rules), large numbers of settlers "jumped the gun" and illegally claimed prime parcels of land "sooner" than the April 22 starting time.

In the years that followed the 1889 Oklahoma Land Rush, the federal government hosted additional rushes, a land lottery, and an auction to distribute acreage in what had been Indian Territory. During two rushes in September 1891, settlers claimed thousands of 160-acres homesteads carved out of land purchased from the Iowa, Sac, Fox, Pottawatomie, and Shawnee American Indian tribes.  The rush created Lincoln and Pottawatomie counties, which boasted populations in the 1900 Census of 27,007 and 26,412, respectively.

A land rush on April 19, 1892, opened 4.3 million acres of Cheyenne and Arapaho land to settlement creating Blaine, Dewey, Day, Roger Mills, Custer, and Washita counties.  A  September 16, 1893, land rush was the largest with as many as 100,000 participants hoping to claim part of the 6.3 million acres of Cherokee grazing land the federal government had purchased two years earlier.  The 1893 rush established Garfield, Grant, Kay, Noble, Pawnee, Woods, and Woodward counties.  The last and smallest of the Oklahoma land rushes took place on May 3, 1895, and distributed parcels carved out of 183,000 acres of land in Lincoln, Oklahoma, and Pottawatomie counties that had once been inhabited by the Kickapoo Indians.

Hoping to prevent the chaos, legal disputes, and violence witnessed during the land rushes, the federal government held a land lottery in 1901 to distribute more than 2 million acres of land formerly owned by the Wichita-Caddo, Comanche, Kiowa and Apache tribes.  From July 9 to July 28, 1901, nearly 170,000 people visited land offices in El Reno and Fort Sill, OK, to enter their names in the lottery.  The names of more than 6,500 lucky new residents of Kiowa, Caddo, and Comanche counties were drawn between July 29 and August 5, with claims settled on August 6, 1901.

The last major transfer of land in the Oklahoma Territory took place in December 1906.  The United States Land Office held a land auction to sell approximately 500,000 acres of land in Oklahoma's southwest corner, bordering Texas and the Red River.  From December 3 to 15, 1906, hopeful settlers submitted bids for land that the land office unsealed and awarded on December 17, 1906.  Winning bidders had the option to pay for the land in installments as long as they lived on the land.

Following the 1889 and later land rushes, the inhabitants of Oklahoma and Indian Territory began exploring the possibility of statehood.  In 1902, leaders in Oklahoma's Indian Territory held a convention in Eufaula, OK, at which representatives of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole American Indian tribes recommended creating an American Indian state called "Sequoyah."  Following a August 21, 1905, constitutional convention, residents of the Indian Territory overwhelmingly voted in favor of the American Indian-led state.  After Congress defeated the bill to admit the state of Sequoyah to the United States, President Theodore Roosevelt proposed creating a single state that included the Oklahoma and Indian Territories.  Roosevelt signed the Oklahoma Enabling Act on June 16, 1906, setting into motion the steps Oklahoma needed to follow to become a state.  Among them: holding a constitutional convention and vote; choosing a permanent state capital; establishing a public school system, etc.  On September 17, 1907, residents of the Indian and Oklahoma Territories voted in favor of statehood.  Roosevelt issued Presidential Proclamation 780 admitting Oklahoma as the nation's 46th state on November 16, 1907.

You can learn more about the Oklahoma and the 1889 Land Rush using census data and records.  For example:
                        - Approximately 50,000 people participated in the April 22, 1889, Oklahoma Land Rush hoping to claim a parcel of land.  Fourteen months later, when the U.S. Census Bureau conducted the 1890 Census in the territory as of June 2, the Oklahoma and Indian Territories had a population of  258,657 .  Oklahoma was admitted as the nation's 46th state on November 16, 1907.  Between 1900 and 1910, Oklahoma's population grew from  790,391  to  1,657,155 .  More recently, the 2020 Census counted  3,959,353  people in Oklahoma.
                        - The land that became the Oklahoma Territory and later the state of Oklahoma was home to American Indian settlements for centuries before Europeans arrived in North America.  The United States acquired the land from France as part of the  1803 Louisiana Purchase .  Following passage of the  Indian Removal Act of 1830 , thousands of American Indians were forcibly removed from the southeaster United States to "Indian Territory" that included present-day Oklahoma.  The  1887 Dawes Act  and  Curtis Act of 1898    enabled the government of the United States to acquire huge swaths of "Indian Territory" that it transferred to settlers via land rushes, a lottery, and auction between 1889 and 1906.  Despite the loss of tribal lands, Oklahoma has the largest American Indian populations in the United States.  During the 2020 Census, Oklahoma led the nation with  306,874  people identified as American Indian alone, followed by Arizona ( 278,333 ), California ( 213,226 ), New Mexico ( 195,765 ), and Texas ( 104,418 ).  Learn more at our  American Indian and Alaska Natives  webpage.
                        - The 2020 Census counted  3,959,353  people living in Oklahoma.  Of the  476,591  people identifying as two races, the majority were American Indian and Alaska Native and White ( 251,170 ) and Black or African American ( 19,104 ).  Of the  29,533  people reporting three races in Oklahoma, most identified as American Indian and Alaska Native, White, and Black or African American ( 15,616 ).
                        - Guthrie, OK, was established as the "Deer Creek" railroad station stop along the Southern Kansas Railway in 1887 and later renamed for Topeka, KS, judge  John Guthrie .  Guthrie served as the territorial capital—and later state capital—of Oklahoma until the seat of government moved to Oklahoma City on June 11, 1910.  Between 1890 and 1910, Guthrie's population more than doubled from  5,333  to  11,654 .  The city's population decreased to  /www.census.gov/history/pdf/guthrieok1960.pdf">9,502  in 1960.  In 2022, the Census Bureau's Population Estimates reported that  11,191  people called Guthrie home.
                        - Oklahomans voted to move the state's capital from Guthrie to Oklahoma City on June 11, 1910.  Between 1890 and 1910, Oklahoma City's population soared from  4,151  to  64,205 .  Fifty years later, the 1960 Census found the city's population had grown to  324,253 . Most recently, the Census Bureau estimated that Oklahoma City was home to  694,800  people in 2022.   Oil and gas exploration and drilling are important industries in Oklahoma.  The state is second in the nation behind Texas for the number of establishments Drilling Oil and Gas Wells (NAICS 213111) and for the number of employees engaged in that industry.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau's County Business Patterns series, Texas led the nation with 699 establishments in 2021.  These establishments employed 23,873 people during the pay period that included March 12, 2021.  That same year, Oklahoma had 184 establishment that employed 3,914 people during the same pay period.  The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that Oklahoma's crude oil production rose from 143 million barrels in 2021 to 152 million barrels in 2022.  In 2022, Oklahoma was the sixth largest crude oil producing state in the nation behind Texas (1.8 billion barrels), Federal Offshore (632 million barrels), New Mexico (580 million barrels), North Dakota (386 million barrels), and Alaska (160 million barrels).In 2021, Oklahoma produced 
143 million
 barrels of crude oil.  Some of that oil was refined into fuels like gasoline, diesel, propane, butane, etc., at the state's petroleum refineries (NAICS 32411).  In 2021, the Census Bureau's 
County Business Patterns
 series reported that Oklahoma was home to 
4
 Petroleum Refiners that employed 
1,844
 people during the pay period that included March 12, 2021.
Oklahoma is home to dozens of American Indian tribes.  In 2022, the Census Bureau's Population Estimates found that the Cherokee and Choctaw American Indian tribes were Oklahoma's largest with 
/data.census.gov/table/ACSSPP1Y2022.S0201?t=-2L&g=040XX00US40">243,643
 people identifying as Cherokee and 
103,204
 identifying as Choctaw alone or in any combination with another race.  The Census Bureau's Population Estimates and 2020 Census identified other sizable populations of people identifying as American Indian alone or in combination living in Oklahoma, including: 
53,220
 members of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation; 
32,832
 people identifying as Chickasaw; 
13,041
 as Seminole; 
9,552
 Osage; and 
6,912
 as Potawatomi.
President 
Benjamin Harrison
 appointed 
Fayette County, IN
, native 
George W. Steele
 as the Oklahoma Territory's first governor.  Steele was working as a lawyer when the 
American Civil War
 began in 1861.  He volunteered to join the Union Army's 12th Indiana Regiment, serving under Major General 
William T. Sherman
.  After retiring from the U.S. Army in 1876, Steele represented Indiana's 11th district from 1881 to 1889.  His loyalty to the Republican Party and military experience led Harrison to appoint Steel to try to control the lawlessness in the Oklahoma Territory following the 1889 Land Rush.  Soon after his May 22, 1890, inauguration in 
Guthrie
, Steele declared a state of emergency to control the territory.  During his 17 months in office, he used his military training to bring order to the territory; vetoed attempts to move Oklahoma's capital from Guthrie to 
Oklahoma City
 and 
Kingfisher
; and helped pass legislation establishing universities in 
Norman
 (University of Oklahoma) and 
Stillwater
 (Oklahoma State University).  After a return to the House of Representatives representing Indiana's 11th District from 1895 to 1903, he served on the board of directors and later director of the National Military Home at 
Marion, IN
, until retiring in 1915.  He died in Marion on July 12, 1922.
The 2020 Census found that the population density of the United States was 
93.8
 people per square mile.  Oklahoma was the nation's 37th most densely populated state or territory in 2020 with a population of 3,959,353 living on 
68,577.8
 square miles for a population density of 
57.7
 people per square mile.  Of the 50 states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico, our nation's capital had the highest population density.  In 2020, Washington, DC had a population of 689,545 living on approximately 
61.1
 square miles—
11,280.0
 people per square mile.  New Jersey and Rhode Island followed Washington, DC, with 
1,263.0
 and 
1,061.4
 people per square mile, respectively.  With 733,391 people living on 
570,865.8
 square miles, Alaska is the nation's least populated state or territory with just 
1.3
 people per square mile.  Visit the Census Bureau's 
2020 Census Demographic Data Map Viewer
 to visualize our nation's population density and change, race, housing, etc.

Oklahoma City is the capital of Oklahoma and also the state's largest city.  Oklahoma's capital moved from Guthrie, to Oklahoma City in June 1910.That year, Oklahoma City had a population of 64,205.  Today, Oklahoma City is home to an estimated 694,800 people.Photo courtesy of the City of Oklahoma City.This Month in Census History
The National Archives releases census records to the public 72 years after Census Day.The National Archives released records from the 1950 Census on April 1, 2022.  The 1960 Census will become available in April 2032.Learn more about the availability of census records at our Genealogy webpages.
View larger imagePreeman McClure
Preeman J. McClure was born near Bryan County, OK, in September 1864.McClure became a successful farmer, stockman, Oklahoma Territory politician, and census taker.After serving in the Oklahoma Territory's legislature, McClure assisted with a special 1896 census of Tobucksy County—present-day Pittsburg County, OK.  The Dawes Commission used the count to allocate land to members of the Choctaw American Indian Tribe.  Four years later, McClure visited the county's residents again to conduct the 1900 Census.In November 1906, McClure served as a delegate to the Oklahoma Territory's constitutional convention.As the Oklahoma Territory moved towards statehood, the Census Bureau conducted a special Census of Oklahoma in 1907, during which it counted 1,414,177 people.  The territory's voters approved the state constitution that McClure helped draft on September 17, 1907, and Oklahoma became the nation's 46th state on November 16, 1907.Preeman McClure died at his home near Broken Bow, OK, in September 1910.Learn more about McClure and other Census Bureau employees at our Notable Alumni webpages.
View larger image"Sooners"Did you know the "Sooner" nickname given to people from Oklahoma has its origins in the 1889 Land Rush?  It was not initially a term of endearment!The "Sooner" moniker comes from a section of the 1889 Indian Appropriation Act called the "sooner clause." It states that no person would be permitted to enter and occupy the Oklahoma Territory before the official start of the land rush scheduled for April 22, 1889.Violators entering the territory "sooner" than the land rush's start could be denied a right to claim ownership to the land.  Many Sooners still secretly entered the territory early, claimed desirable parcels of land, and angered legal land rushers.Being called a "Sooner" was an insult for many years until the University of Oklahoma football team took the name in 1908.  The team's popularity redeemed the name so that Oklahomans proudly adopted the "Sooner" nickname.Just a few notable Sooners include: baseball hall-of-famer Mickey Mantle; actor James Garner; singer and songwriter Woody Guthrie; actor and humorist Will Rogers; astronaut Gordon Cooper (above); cowboy actor and singer Gene Autry; Olympic gold medalist Jim Thorpe; Walmart founder Sam Walton; evangelist Oral Roberts; and National Book Award-winning author Ralph Ellison.**Visit *https://www.census.gov/history* every month for the latest Census History Home Page!**~~~~[an error occurred while processing this directive]  This symbol  indicates a link to a non-government web site.  Our linking to these sites does not constitute an endorsement of any products, services or the information found on them. Once you link to another site you are subject to the policies of the new site.CONNECT WITH US**********- Information Quality
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