The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-09-23
OKLAHOMA KNOCKS
SIGNALS TO UNCLE SAM THAT SHE
GRAVES STATEHOOD.

Credentials She ORers-Up-tO-Date
Facts AbOut the Famous Western
strip--Its Population, Area and In
dustries-A TimberIess Territory.
From the Independent
Oklahoma viii. be knocking at the doors
of Congress next winter, demanding admIs-
sion as a state of the American union. and
she will make her demand as a right not
as a favor-a right based upon larger
population than any new state has been
able to show for the past fifty years and
upon a stable condition of society and as
intelligent and law-respecdng a people as
are those who inhabit Iowa.
In area Oklahoma compares Closer with
Ohio than with any other state 1t con-
tans $1,000 square miles, while Ohio has
1900 1t is a little larger than Indiana,
which has $780, and little smaller than
kentucky, which has 4O,4OO It has posi-
biides of expansion, however, which no
other state can claim, for on it's eastern
border lies the remnant of the Indian ter
ritory, and there is no idea that a state
can ever be made out of that region. The
best disposition of it would be to annex it
all to oklahoma after the Dawes Commits
sion shall have completed its work of al
lodng The land in severaity to the Indians
and their families.
Ragged Border.
Oklahoma has now a very ragged OUT
line. 1t ought TO take in, for the sake of
symmetry, the Panhandle of Texas, which
lies just south of its own Panhandle. but
Texas is not at all likely 20 give up any
part Of her enormous domain. If to the
present area of Oklahoma could be added
the Indian territory and the Panhandle Of
Texas the new state would have as large
an area as that of Kansas. With the In
dian territory alone added it will be about
as large as Iowa. It's extreme length from
east to west on its northern border is S65
miles and it's greatest width is a little
over 200 miles OF its length. however. $50
miles are included in the Panhandle about
forty miles wide, which stretches west of
New Mexico.
The territory was established in the
spring Of 1890, and in 1894 the so-called
cherokee Strip was added, which runs
along The Kansas border for 200 miles and
Is sixty miles wide. 1t was into this strip
mat the great end picturesque tide of i'm
migration poured in 1891 when the govern
mem guarded the Kansas border with SOL
oefs until the day fixed when the land
sAould be open to occupancy by homestead
Setlers.Ihere never was in the whole his
loTy Of the West such an enormous volume
OF immigration poured into any new region
as then moved across The Kansas fine into
ine new territory Thousands of people
Hdd already sneaked across the line in
ADVANCE of the day named for the egiti-
mate movement for the purpose of occupy
ing the choicest quarter sections of land.
ers"
No Timber.
There Is not a mountain or a forest in
an oklahoma, nor is there any timber. ex-
cept N the belts of cottonwood and will
.V"S that skirt the streams. The whole ter
IHoTy Is a vast undulatlng plain covered
with buffalo grass, where not broken up
ny me settlers. II is part of the great
yeniIai pain which stretches from the
bilush boundary on the north clear across
we United States to the Gulf Of Mexico
snore of Texas All the land is fertile and
~ OF II receives sufficient rainfall for the
I'O i"clon or crops except The extreme
western part of the Panhandle, which Is
III ara. The largest acreage in cultlva-
uoh Is IN wheat the second largest is in
corn. and he third is in cotton, and a
regularity Of the territory is the fact that
II Ies IN both the wheat belt and the cot
eou peI' and that It is also a good corn
Couulry 1t is exceptionally well watered
loI d Tar western plains region, and has a
''AI'ef OF important streams the chief
vi when are the Arkansas, the Cimarron
WY nc. IN and south forks Of he CANADIAN
e,'ei, me Red river, the Washita and the
salt Fork
Industries.
g.. mere are ifty-three organized counties
IL, me territory, each of about the average
sIe OF counties in Kansas Good btu
nIinous coal is mined in the extreme south
supplying the locomotives of the Rock ISL
anu railway and furnishing all the towns
:, 'tn domestic fuel. As the whole region
ueSlltute OF wood, the possession Of
s"ese coal mines can be regarded as a
spTcal blessing. There are over 1000
nlHes OF railway track in the territory
H.1sl OIL which is controlled by one or the
G'"er or two great companies which have
e"1" headquarters in Chicago-the Atchi-
aon' topeka and Santa Fe and the Chi
edso' Rock Island and Pacific There are
no mines Of the precious metals. and this
ieulnsi lance may be regarded as advanta-
eVOus lor out of il grows the fact that the
ggH'ry Is not cursed with the gamblers
u.u Spectators, who infest gold and silver
I'.l'I"s camps, and that the popula ton is
yohposed almost exclusively of farmers
o"hing their own lands and of townspeo-
VINO supply them with goods and farm
,',LtIllhery- The territory did not have TO
y,ohtend at ali with lawlessness in its ear
~ y7teer. Almost every man who moved
.1to IL during the great rush settled him
l Immediately upon a farm with his
tt..uly' or opened some kind of business
iouse in one of the new towns. Within
Gis year after the opening of the lands #
~ ",ahoma TO settlement all the good land
m we territory was occupied by home
w., auers' and it is said that by the end Of
c,. season of 1880 there was a man upon
''ery quarter section.
Principal Towns.
hl ne principal towns of the territory, with
- lespecuve populations, are as fol-
10 Guthrie, the capital, $4,000; Okla
ANA city, 5000; El Reno, 1900; King
pargr' lz.OOO; Enid, 5000; Pond Creek, 1900;
y,y, 1900 Blackwell, $500: Hennessy
''''' ava, L5Oo; Jefferson, 1000. And there