Boomer Movement
In about 1879, Elias C. Boudinot helped to build a strong
demand for the opening of these lands. President Rutherford
B. Hayes issued a proclamation on April 26, 1879 forbidding
trespass into these lands. However, almost immediately,
speculators and landless citizens began organizing and
agitating for opening the land to settlement. Newspapers
referred to these pro-settlement groups as "Boomers."
Boomers were encouraged to plan and participate in excursions
or raids into the lands with the objectives of colonization
and gaining a legal opinion as to the status of these
lands.
In late April 1879
the first organized group of Boomers appeared in Coffeeville,
Kansas under the leadership of Colonel C. C. Carpenter.
Carpenter assembled a considerable number of families
along the southern border of Kansas. They reached
the North Canadian River in May 1879 and were duly
removed by U.S. troops. Captain David Lewis Payne
continued the cause and ignited an Oklahoma boomer
movement through his several attempted settlements.
The movement gained momentum in 1887 and 1888 when
the Santa Fe Railroad constructed a line that ran
from Arkansas City, Kansas, directly through the heart
of the Oklahoma country to Gainesville, Texas. This
increased access and further facilitated the settling
of these lands. |
