History

U.S. Census Bureau History: 1889 Oklahoma Land Rush

An 1894 map depicts the Oklahoma and Indian Territories after land rushes conducted in 1889, 1891, and 1892.

Between 1889 and 1906, the federal government conducted land rushes, a lottery, and auction to distribute
land for settlement in the Oklahoma Territory.

Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

At noon on April 22, 1889, the blast of a starting gun echoed across Fort Reno in Oklahoma, signaling the official start of the first Oklahoma Land Rush. Approximately 50,000 men, women and children raced one another across the plains hoping to claim a parcel of land in a 1.9 million-acre tract of "Indian Territory" that had not been assigned to an American Indian tribe. When the rush ended, tents and cooking fires marked the settlement of Oklahoma City, Kingfisher, El Reno, Norman, Guthrie and Stillwater and many other Oklahoma towns. The 1889 and subsequent land rushes helped the Oklahoma and Indian Territories' population grow from 258,657 in 1890 to 1,414,177 at the time of the 1907 special census. On November 16, 1907, Oklahoma became our nation's 46th state.

The United States purchased the land that would eventually become the state of Oklahoma from France with the signing of the Louisiana Purchase Treaty on April 30, 1803. For $15 million, France sold its claim to more than 828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River. Present-day Oklahoma became part of the Missouri Territory in 1812, and of the Arkansas Territory in 1819. In 1820, the federal government began forcibly moving American Indians from the southeastern United States to "Indian Territory" in the western region of the Arkansas Territory. The forced relocation of American Indians (known as the "Trail of Tears") expanded rapidly after passage of the 1830 Indian Removal Act. Over the next two decades, as many as 100,000 American Indians were forced to resettle on reservations assigned by the federal government. In the 1870s, leaders of the "Boomer Movement" argued that the federal government should allow settlers to move onto land in Indian Territory that was not officially assigned to an American Indian Tribe. In 1884, the U.S. District Court in Topeka, KS, ruled that unassigned land in Indian Territory could be settled. Three years later, the 1887 Dawes Act reassigned tribal lands to individual American Indian households and allowed tribes to sell large swaths of vacant land back to the federal government.

In 1889, the federal government identified nearly 1.9 million acres of unassigned land. President Benjamin Harrison signed Proclamation 288—Opening to Settlement Certain Lands in the Indian Territory on March 23, 1889, setting the stage for a race for the land—or "land rush"—the following month. In early April 1889, thousands of people seeking land crowded into towns bordering the Unassigned Territory that served as the official starting points for the April 22 race. To the north, settlers who gathered in Arkansas City and Caldwell, OK, received permission to begin an orderly passage through Cherokee Territory with a U.S. Army escort beginning on April 18, 1889. In contrast, land seekers at the jumping-off point near Fort Reno to the south took part in a frantic and chaotic dash into the Unassigned Territory once a cannon shot announced the land rush's start. Still other settlers traveled into the territory in relative comfort aboard the Santa Fe Railway. Passengers disembarked at desolate station stops, purchased small town plots and began the task of building cities. When the sun set on April 22, the cities of Guthrie and Oklahoma City were home to 10,000 or more settlers. Much to the chagrin of many rush participants (including legal government employees and illegal settlers violating the rush rules), large numbers of settlers "jumped the gun" and illegally claimed prime parcels of land "sooner" than the April 22 starting time.

In the years that followed the 1889 Oklahoma Land Rush, the federal government hosted additional rushes, a land lottery, and an auction to distribute acreage in what had been Indian Territory. During two rushes in September 1891, settlers claimed thousands of 160-acres homesteads carved out of land purchased from the Iowa, Sac, Fox, Pottawatomie, and Shawnee American Indian tribes. The rush created Lincoln and Pottawatomie counties, which boasted populations in the 1900 Census of 27,007 and 26,412, respectively.

A land rush on April 19, 1892, opened 4.3 million acres of Cheyenne and Arapaho land to settlement creating Blaine, Dewey, Day, Roger Mills, Custer, and Washita counties. A September 16, 1893, land rush was the largest with as many as 100,000 participants hoping to claim part of the 6.3 million acres of Cherokee grazing land the federal government had purchased two years earlier. The 1893 rush established Garfield, Grant, Kay, Noble, Pawnee, Woods, and Woodward counties. The last and smallest of the Oklahoma land rushes took place on May 3, 1895, and distributed parcels carved out of 183,000 acres of land in Lincoln, Oklahoma, and Pottawatomie counties that had once been inhabited by the Kickapoo Indians.

Hoping to prevent the chaos, legal disputes, and violence witnessed during the land rushes, the federal government held a land lottery in 1901 to distribute more than 2 million acres of land formerly owned by the Wichita-Caddo, Comanche, Kiowa and Apache tribes. From July 9 to July 28, 1901, nearly 170,000 people visited land offices in El Reno and Fort Sill, OK, to enter their names in the lottery. The names of more than 6,500 lucky new residents of Kiowa, Caddo, and Comanche counties were drawn between July 29 and August 5, with claims settled on August 6, 1901.

The last major transfer of land in the Oklahoma Territory took place in December 1906. The United States Land Office held a land auction to sell approximately 500,000 acres of land in Oklahoma's southwest corner, bordering Texas and the Red River. From December 3 to 15, 1906, hopeful settlers submitted bids for land that the land office unsealed and awarded on December 17, 1906. Winning bidders had the option to pay for the land in installments as long as they lived on the land.

Following the 1889 and later land rushes, the inhabitants of Oklahoma and Indian Territory began exploring the possibility of statehood. In 1902, leaders in Oklahoma's Indian Territory held a convention in Eufaula, OK, at which representatives of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole American Indian tribes recommended creating an American Indian state called "Sequoyah." Following a August 21, 1905, constitutional convention, residents of the Indian Territory overwhelmingly voted in favor of the American Indian-led state. After Congress defeated the bill to admit the state of Sequoyah to the United States, President Theodore Roosevelt proposed creating a single state that included the Oklahoma and Indian Territories. Roosevelt signed the Oklahoma Enabling Act on June 16, 1906, setting into motion the steps Oklahoma needed to follow to become a state. Among them: holding a constitutional convention and vote; choosing a permanent state capital; establishing a public school system, etc. On September 17, 1907, residents of the Indian and Oklahoma Territories voted in favor of statehood. Roosevelt issued Presidential Proclamation 780 admitting Oklahoma as the nation's 46th state on November 16, 1907.

You can learn more about Oklahoma and the 1889 Land Rush using census data and records. For example:

• Approximately 50,000 people participated in the April 22, 1889, Oklahoma Land Rush hoping to claim a parcel of land. Fourteen months later, when the U.S. Census Bureau conducted the 1890 Census in the territory as of June 2, the Oklahoma and Indian Territories had a population of 258,657. Oklahoma was admitted as the nation's 46th state on November 16, 1907. Between 1900 and 1910, Oklahoma's population grew from 790,391 to 1,657,155. More recently, the 2020 Census counted 3,959,353 people in Oklahoma.
• The land that became the Oklahoma Territory and later the state of Oklahoma was home to American Indian settlements for centuries before Europeans arrived in North America. The United States acquired the land from France as part of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. Following passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, thousands of American Indians were forcibly removed from the southeaster United States to "Indian Territory" that included present-day Oklahoma. The 1887 Dawes Act and Curtis Act of 1898 enabled the government of the United States to acquire huge swaths of "Indian Territory" that it transferred to settlers via land rushes, a lottery, and auction between 1889 and 1906. Despite the loss of tribal lands, Oklahoma has the largest American Indian populations in the United States. During the 2020 Census, Oklahoma led the nation with 306,874 people identified as American Indian alone, followed by Arizona (278,333), California (213,226), New Mexico (195,765), and Texas (104,418). Learn more at our American Indian and Alaska Natives webpage.
• The 2020 Census counted 3,959,353 people living in Oklahoma. Of the 476,591 people identifying as two races, the majority were American Indian and Alaska Native and White (251,170) and Black or African American (19,104). Of the 29,533 people reporting three races in Oklahoma, most identified as American Indian and Alaska Native, White, and Black or African American (15,616).
• Guthrie, OK, was established as the "Deer Creek" railroad station stop along the Southern Kansas Railway in 1887 and later renamed for Topeka, KS, judge John Guthrie. Guthrie served as the territorial capital—and later state capital—of Oklahoma until the seat of government moved to Oklahoma City on June 11, 1910. Between 1890 and 1910, Guthrie's population more than doubled from 5,333 to 11,654. The city's population decreased to 9,502 in 1960. In 2022, the Census Bureau's Population Estimates reported that 11,191 people called Guthrie home.
• Oklahomans voted to move the state's capital from Guthrie to Oklahoma City on June 11, 1910. Between 1890 and 1910, Oklahoma City's population soared from 4,151 to 64,205. Fifty years later, the 1960 Census found the city's population had grown to 324,253. Most recently, the Census Bureau estimated that Oklahoma City was home to 694,800 people in 2022.
  
• Oil and gas exploration and drilling are important industries in Oklahoma. The state is second in the nation behind Texas for the number of establishments Drilling Oil and Gas Wells (NAICS 213111) and for the number of employees engaged in that industry. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's County Business Patterns series, Texas led the nation with 699 establishments in 2021. These establishments employed 23,873 people during the pay period that included March 12, 2021. That same year, Oklahoma had 184 establishment that employed 3,914 people during the same pay period. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that Oklahoma's crude oil production rose from 143 million barrels in 2021 to 152 million barrels in 2022. In 2022, Oklahoma was the sixth largest crude oil producing state in the nation behind Texas (1.8 billion barrels), Federal Offshore (632 million barrels), New Mexico (580 million barrels), North Dakota (386 million barrels), and Alaska (160 million barrels).
• In 2021, Oklahoma produced 143 million barrels of crude oil. Some of that oil was refined into fuels like gasoline, diesel, propane, butane, etc., at the state's petroleum refineries (NAICS 32411). In 2021, the Census Bureau's County Business Patterns series reported that Oklahoma was home to 4 Petroleum Refiners that employed 1,844 people during the pay period that included March 12, 2021.
• Oklahoma is home to dozens of American Indian tribes. In 2022, the Census Bureau's Population Estimates found that the Cherokee and Choctaw American Indian tribes were Oklahoma's largest with 243,643 people identifying as Cherokee and 103,204 identifying as Choctaw alone or in any combination with another race. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates and 2020 Census identified other sizable populations of people identifying as American Indian alone or in combination living in Oklahoma, including: 53,220 members of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation; 32,832 people identifying as Chickasaw; 13,041 as Seminole; 9,552 Osage; and 6,912 as Potawatomi.
• President Benjamin Harrison appointed Fayette County, IN, native George W. Steele as the Oklahoma Territory's first governor. Steele was working as a lawyer when the American Civil War began in 1861. He volunteered to join the Union Army's 12th Indiana Regiment, serving under Major General William T. Sherman. After retiring from the U.S. Army in 1876, Steele represented Indiana's 11th district from 1881 to 1889. His loyalty to the Republican Party and military experience led Harrison to appoint Steel to try to control the lawlessness in the Oklahoma Territory following the 1889 Land Rush. Soon after his May 22, 1890, inauguration in Guthrie, Steele declared a state of emergency to control the territory. During his 17 months in office, he used his military training to bring order to the territory; vetoed attempts to move Oklahoma's capital from Guthrie to Oklahoma City and Kingfisher; and helped pass legislation establishing universities in Norman (University of Oklahoma) and Stillwater (Oklahoma State University). After a return to the House of Representatives representing Indiana's 11th District from 1895 to 1903, he served on the board of directors and later director of the National Military Home at Marion, IN, until retiring in 1915. He died in Marion on July 12, 1922.
• The 2020 Census found that the population density of the United States was 93.8 people per square mile. Oklahoma was the nation's 37th most densely populated state or territory in 2020 with a population of 3,959,353 living on 68,577.8 square miles for a population density of 57.7 people per square mile. Of the 50 states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico, our nation's capital had the highest population density. In 2020, Washington, DC had a population of 689,545 living on approximately 61.1 square miles—11,280.0 people per square mile. New Jersey and Rhode Island followed Washington, DC, with 1,263.0 and 1,061.4 people per square mile, respectively. With 733,391 people living on 570,865.8 square miles, Alaska is the nation's least populated state or territory with just 1.3 people per square mile. Visit the Census Bureau's 2020 Census Demographic Data Map Viewer to visualize our nation's population density and change, race, housing, etc.



Oklahoma City is the capital of Oklahoma and also the state's largest city. Oklahoma's capital moved from Guthrie, to Oklahoma City in June 1910.

That year, Oklahoma City had a population of 64,205. Today, Oklahoma City is home to an estimated 694,800 people.

Photo courtesy of the City of Oklahoma City.




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Citing Our Internet Information


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Individual census records from 1790 to 1950 are maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration, not the U.S. Census Bureau.



Publications related to the census data collected from 1790 to 2020 are available at https://www.census.gov/library.html.

Visit the National Archives Web site to access 1940 and 1950 Census records.

Decennial census records are confidential for 72 years to protect respondents' privacy.

Records from the 1950 to 2010 censuses can only be obtained by the person named in the record or their heir after submitting form BC-600 or BC-600sp (Spanish).

Online subscription services are available to access the 1790–1950 census records. Many public libraries provide access to these services free of charge to their patrons.

Contact your local library to inquire if it has subscribed to one of these services.



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