Oklahoma History Lesson for Adrian Walker!! :)

Oklahoma - where the wind does sweep down the plain - and in the hilly areas, too. There are beautiful wheat fields - beautiful to those driving by - dusty and dirty to those of us driving the combines or hauling the wheat to the Co-op in the OLD truck. (I'm speaking for my family!) My frugal Dad always  "fixed" never bought "new"!! He's a good man.

And as for the red dirt you should read my blog from August: for-all-my-okie-peeps

I have many more stories like this!!
 

A state not unlike Kansas. (except for the red-dirt thing)

So, Adrian - this is for you: 

      Sooners is the name given to the settlers in the Midwest. They entered the unassigned lands - which were in the center of the lands ceded to the US by the Creek and Seminole Indians after the Civil War. By 1883 it was bounded by the Cherokee Outlet on the north, several relocated Indian reservations on the east, the Chickasaw on the south, and the Cheyenne-Arapaho reserve on the west.

        In 1989 President Grover Cleveland officially proclaimed this land open to settlement with the Indian Appropriations Act of 1889.

 

         Sooners were often deputy marshals, land surveyors, railroad employees, and others who were able to legally enter the territory early. These people plus many others crossed into the territory illegally at night and they were called "moonshiners" because they entered "by the light of the moon."  These Sooners hid in ditches at night and suddenly appeared to stake their claim after the land run started - way ahead of legal settlers. - the guys who jumped the starting gun to claim their acres. (which is a very interesting bit of history.)

Then, Adrian, there is a whole other history lesson on "Boomers"!! 

My Dad was raised on a "centennial" farm - which is a farm that his family acquired in the land run. And as far as I know, they did it legally and didn't "jump the gun"!!!  

(the information about the Indians and the dates were found on Wikipedia)