The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1913-03-27
NO MANS LAND"
Interesting Facts About Famous Strip
in Texas.

L. A. Allen, a cattleman VINO has
an Office at the stock yards, says tna1
the encyclopedias are all wrong about
how No Mans Land came to- be Gre
ated.
Mr.. Allen was q cattleman on the
plains and mountains for fifty years.
He was a boy when he went from
Kansas City with the first herd of
cattle ever driven over the plains.
For the following fifty years he was
in the cattle business in all parts of
the west. He drove cattle through
the mountains and over the deserts
to California. He drove herds along
the sandy shores of the Pacific, along
the shores of the Great Lakes and
along the Gulf of Mexico. He has
driven cattle along all the old trails
from the Rio Grande to and into
Canada, and he was in the cattle
business in Mexico. He was the in
innate friend of Kit Carson, and he
was with the wife of Carson when
she died and he buried her in his own
garden. He was with Carson when
he died. His brother married the
only daughter of Kit Carson, and
they are living now in Trinidad, Colo.
Mr. Allen was the first sheriff of the
territory in southeast Colorado, and
he led an expedition into No Mans
Land and exterminated the Coe band
of outlaws that had stone fort
there. This expedition hanged elev-
en- of the band in one night to some
cottonwood trees and captured Coe
and took him to Pueblo, where he
was lynched.
No Mans Land used to be the strip
of land 1877 miles long and 35 miles
wide between Texas on the south and
Kansas on the north. Later it was
known as Beaver county. Now it is
made up of Cimarron, Texas and Bea-
YER counties, Oklahoma.
None of the books tells the true
story of how that came to be known
as No Mans Land" said Mr.. Allenlast
week. The Encyclopedia America
ma says of it: In 1S45 Texas, on be-
ing admitted to the Union, ceded to
the United States that strip of her
land which lay north of latitude 80
degrees, 80 minutes north. This
piece, 1877 miles long by 35, was with
out government until 1890, when it
became apart of Oklahoma.
''The International Encyclopedia
says: A region 10 miles long and 35
in width, north of Texas, ceded to the
United States in 1850 and made
part of Oklahoma in 1890. Between
those years the district was under no
form of government and became
great resort of outlaws
'None of these accounts is wholly
true" continued Mr.. Allen. The
truth about it is this: In the war re-
tween Mexico and the United States
this country took all of the country
south of the Arkansas river in what
Is now Colorado and all OF New Mex
leo, Arizona, California and Texas.
In the treaty that ceded this vast
territory to the United States it was
STIPULATED that, for the benefit of the
Mexicans living IN New Mexico, who
were ACCUSTOMED to trading with the
Indians of the Indian Territory, they
should be given a free roadway from
New Mexico into this Indian country
and neutral strip was laid out 167
miles long and about 35 miles wide,
that was since known as the Neutral
Strip and No Mans Land.
1T was stipulated in the treaty
that this zone should be neutral for
ever. Mexico has never relinquished
her rights under that treaty, so as a
a matter of fact Oklahoma has no
right to this strip of ground, because
the United States had no legal right
to cede it to Oklahoma. 1t is today
as much Mexican territory as it is
United States territory and the Uni
ted States nor the state Of Oklahoma
had no right to give titles to the
farms there.
You ask why the MeXicans re-
quired a road 50 miles wide. | will
explain that. In those days there
We're no roads. The people Travelled
over the plains at will, following the
water courses or going from one
water hole to another in a zigzag
way. And as they travelled they
needed to Craze, to hunt and catch
wild horse or two. That strip was
full of buffalo, antelope, deer and
wild horses. So the MeXicans insist
ed on wide roadway that they could