Beschreibung:

Lot of 3 silver gelatin photographs of El Reno, OK, taken during the "Land Lottery" of 1901, 8 x 6 in., mounted, 11 x 9 in. Includes the following: two downward-looking views of a large crowd of homesteaders, primarily men, gathered together on a street in El Reno, with many stores and offices in the background, such as a Post Office, a Boot store, and an Attorney's office, plus a building that is under construction, with penciled captions on verso, including one that reads Drawing for Comanche, Apache and Kiowa land at El Reno in 1901; and a downward-looking shot of a large crowd of men gathered at the El Reno train depot, with some horse-drawn wagons in the midst of the crowd, including W.E. Brown's Bus Line. In August of 1901, the surplus of Kiowa and Comanche lands were opened to settlers, and were to be decided by a "Land Lottery" opposed to a race for claims. Over 3.5 million acres were available. Those who were interested had to register at the Government land offices in El Reno or Lawton, and registration involved being assigned a card that included the settler's name and address. The land offices received these envelopes for 15 days, and at the end of this period of time, the envelopes were placed in a large box, shuffled, and then drawn out by the land officials and numbered in order. The settlers staked their claims in turn according to the numbers on their envelopes and cards. During this land opening, over 160,000 people registered for homesteads at El Reno. (Information obtained from the Oklahoma Genealogy and History Website, May 1, 2011.) Condition: Some light soiling to photos; loss to upper left corner of photo of train depot; moderate wear to mounts.