Cherokee Strip

Strictly, the land opened here was the Cherokee Outlet. The Cherokee Strip proper was a band along the southern border of Kansas, which the Cherokee Nation lost along with the Neutral Lands in the 1866 treaties, when the United States also declared the eastern third of the Outlet surplus for other tribes. Agreeing to sell the rest in 1891 at $1.40 to $2.50 an acre, the Nation won two terms: removal of intruders from its eastern lands, which took more than a year, and the right of individual Cherokees to take claims in the Outlet.

What the plaque says

Cherokee Strip Opened by Run, Sept. 16, 1893. On line here, 15,000 waited for carbine signal fired by cavalryman at High Noon. Lt. C. A. Hedekin, commanding Troop A, U. S. Cav. Race for land started from post on knoll half mile west, by wagon, buggy, bicycle, horse and train. In 60 by 90 mile area, every acre claimed by nightfall. The first settlers reached Enid from here. Oklahoma Historical Society and State Highway Commission 1951

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center — 16 mi
  The Oklahoma Historical Society's Enid museum of the September 1893 run into the Cherokee Outlet, with the town's original land office among the old buildings out back.
• The Chisholm — 22 mi
  Kingfisher's farming and ranching museum on the Chisholm Trail's stage branch, with a heritage village and Horizon Hill, the mansion a territorial governor built for a capital that never came.

More markers nearby

• Run of '89 North Boundary — steps away
• Buffalo Springs — 3.5 mi
• Massacre of Pat Hennessey — 3.7 mi
• Roy V. Cashion — 3.7 mi