The history of Oklahoma contains two of the most fascinating episodes in
the Westward Movement. These were the land rushes of 1889 and 1893, when
the government threw open several million acres of land to settlers on a
first-come, first-served basis. The opening of these tracts came at a
time when choice land throughout the plains states already had been
taken up, and because the openings were well publicized throughout the
country, the competition for farms and town lots was tremendous. In the
following report Hamilton Wicks describes the boom psychology and his
own part in the race for free land in 1889. Guthrie, Oklahoma, where
Wicks claimed a town lot, was on the route of the Henry Ellsworth and
Washington Irving expedition in 1832.