Another stop, in Oklahoma this time, and we took a canal tour in the “Bricktown” district; it was quite pleasant and made better by a series of sculptures “The Oklahoma City Land Run Monument“.
“… the incredible, and notorious, first Land Run, when 50,000 people rushed into the Unassigned Lands of Oklahoma Territory to stake their claim for free land. Over two million acres in Oklahoma, both farm land and town lots, had previously been measured out by the government. The vast crowd of hopeful settlers massed all along the border. All were armed with a flag, to claim their stake — farmers and scholars, Yankees and southerners, the rich and the poor, black and white, soldiers and laborers, even women riding side-saddle. At the sound of a cannon shot at noon, the anxious settlers surged forward in a tumultuous avalanche of wagons and horsemen all in one breathtaking instant. Many did not achieve their dream; in the chaos of the mad dash, people were crushed, horses fell, wagons toppled, and fights ensued. Besides, hundreds, maybe thousands, of settlers had already snuck in over the border a day or two sooner, to claim the choicest land. These “sooners”, pretending to be exhausted from the mad dash, even having run their horses around in circles to get them all sweaty beforehand, made a show of slamming their flags into their chosen ground just as the first legitimate settlers appeared in the distance. Dozens of the U.S. surveyors, in spite of it being illegal, had also already staked their claims, prompting years of court cases afterwards, some of which even went to the Supreme Court.“
M&I / GBMINI 