OKLAHOMA TRAILS  |  TRAILS to the PAST

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In 1803 the United States acquired from France the area known as the Louisiana Purchase, which included most of future Oklahoma. Soon explorers and traders traversed the region. In 1821 Thomas James led a party from St. Louis to Santa Fe to establish trade. They descended the Mississippi River to the mouth of the Arkansas River and proceeded west on the Cimarron River. In the 1820's and 1830's the Creek and Seminole were settled in the area between the southern boundary of the Cherokee Outlet and the Canadian River. Because they supported the Confederacy during the Civil War (1861-65), the Creek and Seminole lost land as a result of the Reconstruction Treaties of 1866. Part of that land was situated in the area that became known as the Unassigned Lands, which was opened to non-Indian settlers on April 22, 1889.
Prior to the land opening in 1889, the Kansas Southern Railway (later the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, AT&SF) constructed a line from the Kansas-Oklahoma border to Purcell, Indian Territory. Station points along the route were established. Those situated in future Logan County were Beaver Creek (later Alfred and present Mulhall) and Deer Creek (present Guthrie). A well was dug at Deer Creek station to supply water for the steam engines. Many participants of the Land Run of 1889 utilized the AT&SF line from the starting points of Arkansas City, Kansas, to the north, and of Purcell, Indian Territory, from the south. A U.S. land office, located one block east of the Santa Fe depot, opened on April 22, 1889. Logan County was organized as County One in 1890 after the passage of the Organic Act on May 2, 1890. On August 5, 1890, voters selected Logan as the county name in honor of U.S. Sen. John A. Logan. Guthrie, designated as the county seat and the capital of Oklahoma Territory, was also the state capital from 1907 to 1910. In 1907 the Logan County Courthouse (NR 84003141) was erected by the Manhattan Construction Company of Muskogee.

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Carnegie Library, Guthrie, Oklahoma
The Statehood Ceremony was held on the front steps November 16, 1907

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Page Created 22 February 2010

Last Updated, Tuesday, 10-Jul-2018 11:04:46 MDT
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