Land Rush of 1889

The Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889 is the first land rush into the Unassigned Lands.

The area that is opened to settlement included all or part of the Canadian, Cleveland, Kingfisher, Logan, Oklahoma, and Payne counties of the U.S. state of Oklahoma.

The land run starts at high noon on April 22, 1889, with an estimated fifty thousand people lined up for their piece of the available two million acres (eight thousand square kilometers).

The Unassigned Lands are considered some of the best unoccupied public land in the United States.

The Indian Appropriations Act of 1889 is passed and signed into law with an amendment by Illinois Representative William McKendree Springer that authorizea President Benjamin Harrison to open the two million acres (eight thousand square kilometers) for settlement.

President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Homestead Act of 1862, which allows settlers to claim lots of up to one hundred and sixty acres (0.65 square kilometers), provided that they live on the land and improve it.