Indian Territory, April 22nd, 1889, was the scene of one of the Old West's epochal moments.  It was an instance where unassigned lands within the IT were opened for settlement.  The settlers were supposed to wait until noon, then rush in to file their claims on farm land or plots of land in towns.  Some, called Sooners, did not wait and snuck in early to file their land claims.  Court cases over these claims occupied the legal system there for years, and led to a lottery system for further land giveaways. Up to 60,000 settlers entered the territory that day.

Oklahoma reservation break up map:




Picture of land run start:




"By the end of the day (April 22, 1889), both Oklahoma City and Guthrie had established cities of around 10,000 people in literally half a day.

As Harper's Weekly put it: "At twelve o'clock on Monday, April 22d, the resident population of Guthrie was nothing; before sundown it was at least ten thousand. In that time streets had been laid out, town lots staked off, and steps taken toward the formation of a municipal government."

Many settlers immediately started improving their new land or stood in line waiting to file their claim. Many children sold creek water to homesteaders waiting in line for five cents a cup, while other children gathered buffalo dung to provide fuel for cooking.  By the second week, schools had opened and were being taught by volunteers paid by pupils' parents until regular school districts could be established. Within one month, Oklahoma City had five banks and six newspapers."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_Run_of_1889

Guthrie, Oklahoma:




Some of the Sooners had official standing, such as law enforcement officials who were allowed in early.  This led to controversy when they were allowed to file land claims.


"I ran with the first of the crowd to get a good point of view from which to see the rush. When I had time to look about me I found that I was standing beside a tent, near which a man was leisurely chopping holes in the sod with a new axe.

"Where did you come from, that you have already pitched your tent?" I asked.
"Oh, I was here," said he.
"How was that?"
"Why, I was a deputy United States marshal."
"Did you resign?"
"No; I'm a deputy still."
"But it is not legal for a deputy United States marshal, or any one in the employ of the government, to take up a town lot in this manner."
"That may all be, stranger; but I've got two lots here, just the same; and about fifty other deputies have got lots in the same way. In fact, the deputy-marshals laid out the town."

At intervals of fifteen minutes, other trains came from the north loaded down with home-seekers and town-site speculators. As each succeeding crowd rushed up the slope and found that government officers had taken possession of the best part of the town, indignation became hot and outspoken; yet the marshals held to their lots and refused to move. Bloodshed was prevented only by the belief of the home-seekers that the government would set the matter right.

This course of the deputy United States marshals was one of the most outrageous pieces of imposition upon honest home-seekers ever practiced in the settlement of a new country. That fifty men could, through influence, get themselves appointed as deputy United States marshals for the sole purpose of taking advantage of their positions in this way is creditable neither to them nor to the man who made their appointment possible. This illegal seizure thus became the first matter of public discussion in the city of Guthrie."

http://urbanplanning.library.cornell.edu/DOCS/landrush.htm

Homestead on the frontier:




Further readings:

http://www.okgenweb.org/~land/

http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/l/la014.html

Seems like a lotto system would have worked out much better instead of a Black Friday style rush

That is true.  It would have prevented a lot of the government officials from jumping on the best land as well.

Nicole Kidman