The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1892-05-04
A RUSH FOR HOMES.
Opening Of the Cheyenne and Ara
pahoe Reservations.

opening Oh Cnc ShCyC"o >'
pahoe Reservations.
A dispatch from Guthrie Oklahoma, says: !:
"rhis morning found the Cheyenne and
Arapahoe country a wide stretch OF Land,
unpopulated and lonely. Tonight this great
e1panse Of prairie is settled at every stones
At noon Governor Seay, in the watch
tower at FL Reno, dropped the signal nag,
the battery belched forth the signal 70 tne
waiting thousands and the wild race oegan.
How they did nm go bill 'na0asn ana doWn SVn
ggeSs geSsnsh sshroush sain tie little mn rvuets that
threatened to be torrents before night No
trouble of any sort, NO disturbances, oc-
curred on the line of the opening. About slI
thousand people made the race from west OF
ri Rano. as many from Kingfsher. and
1000 from the line Of the Wichita reservation
west of Minco. Three thousand from rover,
as many from Hennessy, and aoouG as many
as'all these went in small squads all along tne
line from the Cherokee strip on tne NORM,
the Panhandle Of Texas on the west. ana 1ne
'Kiowa Indian reservation on the soutn:
A riot occurred in front Of the Oklahoma
CITY Land Office at the hour OF the opening,
and a number Of people were badly IN
iured. At l2 o'clock the register, Leach, an
nonnced that no lines would be recognized,
and the first person to get IN the DC or
wonld have the first filing, and others ID
succassson as they arrived. This pre-
cipitated a wild rush, and in few moments
hundreds Of men and women were engaged I'D
a disgraceful scramble, fighting, pulling,
trampiing on each other. and for time 1t
sesmed az though many would be killed.
One man was struck on the head with re,
volver and badly injured, but he renamed
in the ring and got the eleventh filing. De
had been third in the line, but sold his place
for $3.50 in the morning..
A woman near her had her clothes torn to
pieces. and several men were trampled on
and injured. Windows o. the Land ONCE
were smashed and other damage done.
The Cheyenne and Arapahoe Reservation,
where 80. 900 citizens Of the United States
have inst found new homes is situated in
the Indian Territory, between the Cherokee
Outlet on the north and the Kiowa, Com
manche and Apache Reservation on the
south. Its eastern border adjoins Oklaho-
ma and it's western the Panhandle OF Texas
Its area Is much greater than is generally
understood to be. It would make two OKLA
bomas or five Rhode Islands, while the
whole States Of Connecticut and Rhode
Island could be set in it and there would
still remain room for four Districts OF
Columbia :,
The tract contains $500 square miles or
1000, 900 acres. Out Of tais the resident In =.
dians have been allotted by the Government
$50, $50 acres, giving to each OF the Indians
18O acres. There was thus left for general
settlement about three and half million
acres, which, allowing quarter section or
100 acres to each home seeker, would accom-
date about %, 600 settlers outside OF the town
sites.
Very few of the thousands who had been
waiting for weeks on the border and in the
frontier towns for the final rush had any.
thin. but the vaguest idea as to the real
character of the land they were so anxious
to possess.
When they had reached their claims and
had staked them of, and had taken the op-
portunity to survey their broad acres. they
found that instead of Garden Of Eden, a
promised land flowing with milk and honey,
as they had fondly believed, they had really
possessed themselves OF section of very or
dinary Western prairie land, flowing with
nothing but high grass ana very brackish
streams bitter with alkali.