. The essential facts of Oklahoma history and civics . settlement, decided to wait until they could enterit legally. Efforts were made in Congress to pass a billwhich would open the country to settlement, butthe influence of the cattlemen and the The springerIndians was against it. Early in 1889 ^the Springer Bill passed the House of Representa-tives, but was defeated in the Senate. Just be-fore the close of the session of Congress, the billproviding for the opening of Oklahoma wasattached to the Indian Appropriation Bill as a rider and was passed by Congress. President Harrison issued a procl
. The essential facts of Oklahoma history and civics . settlement, decided to wait until they could enterit legally. Efforts were made in Congress to pass a billwhich would open the country to settlement, butthe influence of the cattlemen and the The springerIndians was against it. Early in 1889 ^the Springer Bill passed the House of Representa-tives, but was defeated in the Senate. Just be-fore the close of the session of Congress, the billproviding for the opening of Oklahoma wasattached to the Indian Appropriation Bill as a rider and was passed by Congress. President Harrison issued a proclamation fix-ing the time of the opening at twelve oclock,noon, April 22, 1889. No one w^as allowed toenter before that time. Any one who did so wasnot entitled to land and was known as a ^ sooner. 86 OKLAHOMA HISTORY On April 22, thousands of people were along theborders of the land ready to make a race for aquarter-section of land or for a town lot in one ofthe cities which were to be built. A signal wasgiven at twelve oclock, at which time the race. Race for Land began. People raced on horseback, in carts, andin almost every conceivable wa3^ The Sante Feran trains on a slow schedule from the north andfrom the south. Cities sprang up, and thewhole country was settled almost within an the evening of the first day there were perhapsfifteen thousand people in Guthrie and an equalnumber in Oklahoma City, while Kingfisher and THE FIRST OPENING 87 El Reno were fulh half as large, and Norman,Stillwater, and Edmond were cities of considerablesize. There must have been almost one hundredthousand people in the Territory the first failed to get lands or lots and returned totheir homes. Others soon became tired of thehardships and left the country. In 1890 Okla-homa had a population of 61,834. Questions. Why were the cattlemen opposed toopening Oklahoma ? Why did the railroads favor open-ing? Give the boundaries of Old Oklahoma. Whowas T. C. Sears ? Why did he claim that
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