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Description

Rare early promotional map of the Oklahoma Territory and contiguous regions, showing the routes to the Territory serviced by the Missouri Pacific Railway and Iron Mountain Routes, issued at the time of the Land Rush of 1889. The map was likely issued in the first several months of 1889, prior to the official opening of lands under the Indian Appropriations Bill of 1889 and undoubtedly played a roll in attracting Sooners and legal settlers to the yet to be opened regions (maked in red on this map.

The map shows the various railroad routes to points in the eastern part of Indian Territory, Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Colorado, highlighting access to the newly opened lands in the Oklahoma Territory which had been opened by the Dawes Act of 1887 and the yet to be opened lands under the "Peel Bill" of 1889. The map appeared in a 13 page printed pamphlet titled The promised land, Oklahoma now open: and reached in comfortable day coaches, free reclining chair cars, Pullman buffet sleeping cars via Missouri Pacific Railway : apply to S.H.H. Clark, 1st vice-pres. & gen'l. manager, W.H. Newman, 3d vice-president, H.C. Townsend, general passenger anad ticket agent, St. Louis. (of which only two examples are recorded--Yale and Wisconsin Historical Society).

The Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889 was the first land run into the Unassigned Lands and included all or part of the modern day Canadian, Cleveland, Kingfisher, Logan, Oklahoma, and Payne counties. The land run started at high noon on April 22, 1889, with an estimated 50,000 people lined up for their piece of the available two million acres.

The Unassigned Lands were considered some of the best unoccupied public land in the United States. The Indian Appropriations Bill of 1889 was passed and signed into law with an amendment by Illinois Representative William McKendree Springer, that authorized President Benjamin Harrison to open these lands for settlement. Due to the Homestead Act of 1862, signed by President Abraham Lincoln, legal settlers could claim lots up to 160 acres in size. Provided a settler lived on the land and improved it, the settler could then receive the title to the land. A number of the individuals who participated in the run entered early and hid out until the legal time of entry to lay quick claim to some of the most choice homesteads. These people came to be identified as "sooners." This led to hundreds of legal contests that arose and were decided first at local land offices and eventually by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

One of the more fascinating appearances on the map is the prominent depiction of the town of Wagoner (about 30 miles east of modern day Tulsa), which this map depicts most prominently in the entire Territory. In 1871, the Missouri-Kansas and Texas Railroad (MKT) built a railway from Kansas to Gibson Station, Indian Territory. Present day Gibson Station is a ghost town and no longer has a post office or stores. In 1883, the Kansas, Missouri and Texas Railroad (KATY) also ran a route through the region. KATY employee Henry Samuel "Bigfoot" Wagoner decided that a switch was needed between Gibson Station and Flat Rock to load cattle and locally cut walnut logs lumber When the switch was completed, KATY roadmaster, Perry, telegraphed the company that "Wagoner's switch is ready." Also in 1883, the Kansas and Arkansas Valley Railroad made an announcement that it would put tracks through this area. Wagoner's switch would now become a crossroads in railway services.

Wagoner's first "permanent" residents were William H. and Sallie H. McAnnally on June 5, 1887. William had been an MKT employee who had previously worked at Wagoner's switch. The family first slept in a borrowed tent until they moved into the KATY section house. McAnnally later quit his job with the railroad, and he built a wooden structure that the railway employees called "The Cottonwood Hotel." By February 25, 1888, the town's request for a post office was granted and William W. Teague was the city's first postmaster. There were many enterprises that came to Wagoner during that time because many people saw the possibility of the Indian Territory being sold for private ownership. Within less than two years, the town went from an unpopulated rail switching point to the largest city in Indian Territory (at least if you look at this map!).

Printed by Woodward and Tierney of St. Louis, one of the most active printers of railroad and promotional material west of the Mississippi River during the period. Privately published maps promoting the Land Rush of 1889 are quite scarce and this one, which celebrates theOklahoma and Cherokee Strip as "The Home-Seeker's Mecca" is certainly one of the most colorful of its type. OCLC locates only 3 examples of the map (University of Tulsa, SMU-Degolyer Library and NYPL). The map may also have been re-issued in a pamphlet entitled STATISTICS AND INFORMATION CONCERNING THE INDIAN TERRITORY, OKLAHOMA, AND THE CHEROKEE STRIP in 1893 and 1894 (Hurd, 1706).

Condition Description
Minor fold splits and paper weakness re-inforced on verso. Some occasional minor loss at folds.
H.C. Townsend Biography

Land promoter and agent, active in St. Louis in the late  19th Century.  Active in promotion of lands in Oklahoma during the Land Rush of 1889.