Volume 17 , Issue 1

Great Event Recalled By Pioneer

Written by T. J. Dyer, September 16, 1933 - On Saturday, September 16, 1933 will occur the 40th anniversary of the opening of the Cherokee Strip to white settlement. Time and space forbid the telling of the many changes that have taken place, but the intervening 40 years have been years of progress and development.

No state has ever achieved such magnitude in so short a time as has Oklahoma, and I might add that in no part of the state has this progress and development been greater than that exemplified by this part of the state known as the Cherokee Strip or Outlet. It is comprised for the most part of the finest farms in the state, with commodious dwellings, many of them modern, and other substantial improvements which constitute a real home.

And its cities, towns and villages will stand comparison with any other portion of our great Oklahoma. As I look back over these 40 years, my mind goes still farther back, and memory calling up the past. I vision this country as it was when first I came to the then Indian Territory in 1870.

Out here, where we now live, in Woods County, buffalo, elk, deer, and the antelope held supreme and unlimited sway, while the black bear, cougar, lynx, catamount, lobo wolf, and coyote sang their hideous incantations for a midnight reverie. The wild turkey was here in countless numbers. But I must hasten on.

Later in the early 80's this part became home of the cattle barons, ranges were mapped out, ranches built, while the longhorn cattle in almost countless numbers roamed the country o'er hillside and plain, fattening on the luscious buffalo grass that grew everywhere, and then were shipped to the markets of the east.

With these ranges, ranches and cattle came the cowboy, and for a number of years they lived here, that carefree and happy life known only to the old-time cowboy.

In that beautiful poem by Elizabeth Akers Allen, entitled, "Rock Me to Sleep," occur these words:

Backward, turn backward, O time in your flight,
Make me a child again, just for tonight.
(I fain would change the last line to read thus: "Make me a cowboy again, just for tonight.")
Bring back the old days, of long, long ago, in this do not fail.
Bring back the longhorns, and the old Chisholm Trail.
Bring back the old chuck wagon, and a cook named Red,
Who could make good black coffee and sourdough bread.
O, for those old days, the cowboys still yearn,
But never, no never, will they ever return.
There were a number of contributing factors which hastened the opening of the lands now embraced in the western half of the state to settlement by the white race. First, Old Oklahoma, so-called, was really government land and was never ceded to any tribe of Indians. David Payne discovered this while in Washington, D.C. and sought to colonize this particular tract of land. He made numerous excursions with white settlers, called Payne's Oklahoma boomers, into this territory, but each time was ejected b y federal troops. Occupancy of the Cherokee Strip by the cattlemen, called cattle barons by the home-seekers, was one of the prime factors.

The same conditions existed in other Indian reservations. Times were hard, the people as a rule were poor, having lost their farms in Kansas and other states, were mortgage-ridden, without any hope of redemption. These people were now clamoring for new worlds to conquer. This caused the administration at Washington to sit up and take notice. Some statesmen and others became interested and sought a solution of the problem. The cattlemen were ordered out of the Cheyenne and Arapaho reservation. The Alliance and Populist movement had been inaugurated.

Populism was at its peak. Old Oklahoma was opened to white settlement April 22, 1889. The cattlemen were ordered from the Cherokee strip, and negotiations were under way to purchase this land from the Cherokee Indians.

Although the cattlemen had been ejected from the strip, there were quite a number of them, contrary to orders, who still held herds here, and when discovered by the troops were escorted to the borders of Kansas. Once the soldiers were gone the return of the herd was an easy matter.

Walter Fulton, now living near Fairvalley, told me of an experience with a squad of these gentry. They came upon him while in charge of one of these herds. The commanding officer was very emphatic in telling Walter to move on to other pastures. Walter good-naturedly assured the officer he had no place to go with his herd, but if he, the officer, knew any good grazing land, he, Walter, would be glad to profit by such knowledge, whereupon the officer immediately rounded up Walter and his outfit and proceeded to Camp Supply. The federal authorities having charge of the herd had to see that they were provided with water and grass, and thus relieve Walter of this responsibility.

Perhaps there were a few herds that never entirely evacuated the country.

Among the first cattle ranches to be established in Woods and Woodward Counties, after the opening of the Strip, was by Cion Floyd, Jim Hale, Clothier and Miles, Alph Updegraff, Lige Gaskill, Ishmael and Rudolph, Ewell and Justice, J. E. Fritzlen, and many others whose names I do not now recall.

There are quite a few of the oldtime cowmen and cowboys circulating around on this mundane sphere but many have passed on to the cowman's paradise.

Among those living in this county I recall Wiley Cowen, Gene Pardee, Walter Fulton, Jim Bridges, Price Fulton, Lew Parker, Bob Beal, Cion Floyd, Jim Hale, Gus Hadwiger and B. O. Haines.

This anniversary occurs on the same day (Saturday) as the original opening day, 40 years ago.

It is well that we celebrate this, the 40th anniversary of the opening of the Cherokee Strip. It will be a fitting tribute to the pioneer settlers, who braved the drouth and hot winds, besides enduring many hardships in order to subdue a semi-wilderness, which today, after the lapse of 40 years, is one of the most fertile and productive areas. Many of the old pioneers have gone to their reward, but their descendants, their kith and kin, a younger generation, still imbued with that pioneer spirit of their ancestors, are left to carry on to even greater and nobler achievements.

Thus, we as a pioneer people have made history, and plenty of it.

Respectfully submitted, ~~ T. J. DYER
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