Volume 9 , Issue 37

The 1893 Run At Caldwell

Fully ten thousand people make that grand rush for land in 1893.

Caldwell, Kan, sept. 18, 1907 -- "Two minutes after noon today 10,000 people who had gathered along the border south of Caldwell were rushing helter skelter into the strip in every direction as far as the eye could reach. Five minutes later the fleetest and foremost horsemen were mere specks and clouds of dust in the distance and behind them were hundreds and hundreds of white covered wagons and buggies trooping into the land, leaving behind them great clouds of dust to mark the line.

"The people did not become impatient until a few minutes before 12 o'clock, when the cavalrymen made their last ride up and down the column. For five minutes before the signal all had been getting ready and there was more excitement than ever along the lines of people who had stood so many hours waiting for the opening.

"At 12 o'clock a cannon sounded away of several miles east of the hills where sightseers had assembled. There was a cloud of dust in the distance.

"The race at first was a fast one and hundreds of men on horseback darted out of the mass and began to lead the crowd. There were some lively races, but there are too many entries to observe individual contests.

"Two men on safety bicycles who had really gone into the strip along the Rock Island track unobserved ten minutes before 12, were for a long time in the lead of every one and they went out of sight first.
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