Wandering About Sooners.

I was reading my book on Western Folklore yesterday.  It told about the Oklahoma Land Rush.  (1862)  What a coincidence, since I blogged about it yesterday, remember that Grover Cleveland figured if he would give away 160 acres the West would support the Union.  Anyway, I figured that today I would expound on that.  First, let me show you a map of the Indian Territory and the part outlined in red is the where the free land give-a-way was located.  This "Indian Territory" was what later became Oklahoma.

On the day and hour designated for the run, there were all kinds of people ready to run and get their free land:

 

At the designated time (and I assume that a large gun or cannon was fired) everyone took off in a great stampede:

 

As you can see, there were people on horseback, in wagons, and I would assume, on foot, too.

There were a lot of people who decided not to play under the governments rules.  They went into the designated area and staked out their claims, sometimes days and weeks ahead of the run.  Then they would hide and be ready to show themselves when other "runners" who started on time began to show up.  These people who broke the rules were called "Sooners".  Yep, you guessed it, because they showed up sooner than they were supposed to.  The name stuck and anyone from Oklahoma is still called a Sooner.  (Even a college football team.)

Maybe all of you knew all this, but I didn't.  If I did, I had forgotten it.  Another nice day in my area and hope all of you have a great day, you hear?