Volume 10 , Issue 4

No Man's Land

The establishment of the territory of New Mexico (September 9, 1850), with the one hundred and third meridian as its boundary, and of the territory of Kansas (May 30, 1854), with the thirty-seventh parallel as its southern boundary, together with the northern boundary of Texas as established by the cession of 1850, and the western limit of the Cherokee Outlet (i.e., the one hundredth meridian) left a tract of land, thirty-four miles wide and 166 miles long, unassigned to any state or territory. Eventually it became known as No Mans Land and as such it remained until it was opened to settlement in 1889 and, in 1890, was included in the bounds of the Territory of Oklahoma by the terms of the Organic Act.

Act to 1821 it was claimed as a part of the dominions of the Kingdom of Spain. Then, until 1836, it was included in the domain of the Republic of Mexico. From 1836 to 1845 it belonged to the Republic of Texas. Brought into the Union as a part of a state, it was later excluded and long remained as the only tract of unorganized public domain in the country. it is now included in the three Oklahoma counties of Beaver, Texas and Cimarron. -- A Standard History of Oklahoma, Joseph B. Thoburn, Chapter XXVIII, pg. 207, Vol. 1.
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