What was the Year of Oklahoma land rush?

Answer 1

At precisely high noon, thousands of would-be settlers make a mad dash into the newly opened Oklahoma Territory to claim cheap land.

Answer 2

In about 1879,Elias C. Boudinot began a campaign, perhaps at the behest of one of his clients, the M-K-T Railroad, to open the land "unoccupied by any Indian" to settlement by non-Indians. He pointed out in a letter published in 1879 that four of the Five Civilized Tribes, unlike the Cherokee, had extinguished their complete title to the lands ceded following the Civil War and received full payment. Also, that, "Whatever may have been the desire or intention of the United States Government in 1866 to locate Indians and negroes upon these lands, it is certain that no such desire or intention exists in 1879. The Negro since that date, has become a citizen of the United States, and Congress has recently enacted laws which practically forbid the removal of any more Indians into the Territory." He put forth the view that area was now Public Land and suggested the names Unassigned Lands and Oklahoma for the district.

After that...the railroads which had built across Indian Territory with water stops every 10 miles or so, but no customers along the way, and a group of people, mainly from Kansas, called "Boomers" led by David L. Payne, who made repeated incursions to try to settle the "Unassigned Lands" in central Oklahoma.


Indian Territory had been set aside for Native Americans, but, because the Indians for the most part supported the South during the Civil War, some of the lands were taken away and left "Unassigned". The Boomers saw these lands as "The Promised Land" and wanted them opened to white settlement.

Lobbying by the railroads and efforts by the Boomers eventually led to an amendment to the Indian Appropriations Act of 1889 to open up the Unassigned Land by land run on April 22, 1889.

Answer 3

The 1862 rush for land by 100,000 people on horseback racin for land that they would farm and live on for five years.

Answer 4

1889