Reliving History — Part 6

Oklahoma conducts land lottery in 1901

  • This map shows the location of the first land lottery in 1901.
  • This map shows Oklahoma Territory after it was opened up to settlement in 1889.
  • This picture shows the lottery boxes awaiting a drawing for the opening of the Kiowa-Comanche-Apache lands in 1901.
As the previous land runs in present-day Oklahoma proved to be near disasters, the government decided a lottery would be a more civilized way to fairly parcel the leftover land out to potential settlers. With a lottery, there wasn’t a risk of stampedes due to poor communication between law officials. Nor was there subsequent fear of anyone “jumping the line” to get a better land claim. January…

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