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Exhibit celebrates land rush anniversary

By FOSS FARRAR
Traveler Staff Writer

Several descendants of those who made the Oklahoma land run of 1893 attended Thursday's ceremonies at the Cherokee Strip Land Rush Museum, commemorating the event. Some checked a list of names of the lucky ones who staked a claim. It was posted on the wall behind a new exhibit.

"We still live on the land claimed in the run by my husband's grandpa," said Wilma Hynd of rural Kay County, Okla. "Our land is five miles west and two miles south of the state line, behind Chilocco (the former Indian school)."

Hynd was one of about 30 people at Thursday's celebration of the 111th anniversary of the largest land run in history.

Hynd found her husband's ancestor's name on the list, D. Hynd for David Hynd.

"We even have the original deed for the land," she added. "It's in a bank vault."

Cowboy poet Harold Carpenter recalled his wife's question when he told her he was composing a poem about the Cherokee Strip: "isn't that controversial," she asked.

She thought it was an Indian burlesque dance. "No, it's the Oklahoma land rush of 1893," he replied.

Carpenter recited his poem to the audience, including Mayor Wayne Short and other city and state officials, at the Cherokee Strip Land Rush Museum.

"This event is billed as 'a new beginning' -- what a wonderful deal, when you stop and think of it," Short said. "One hundred and eleven years ago many lives were changed the day 100,000 people made the land rush. Many staked their claims for free land and a new beginning in a new land."

A ribbon-cutting followed the mayor's comments, and a loud gunshot -- like the one signaling the start of the land rush 111 years ago.

The shot was fired by museum worker Ashleigh Videgar, who was dressed as one of the federal marshals who started the 1893 race. She used a track pistol from Ark City High School.

Thursday's gunshot signaled the opening of a new exhibit at the museum. People filtered into a gallery and saw a manikin dressed in old west attire kneeling on the ground to stake his claim.

The audio portion of the exhibit was missing because equipment that was to have been overnighted from Florida two days ago had not yet arrived, said museum director Heather Ferguson. The shipment had been delayed by Hurricane Ivan.

A couple from Pasadena, Texas, Ed and Carole Dillow, also attended the event. Ed Dillow has two great-grandfathers who made the run. Accompanying them to the museum was an aunt, Hope Alberty.

"The Alberty family on Ed's mother's side had a reunion at Shidler Lake last Saturday," Carole Dillow said. "We were here for the reunion and I saw an article in the Ponca City News about this event in Ark City."

The Dillows brought a newspaper clipping of an old photo showing one of his great-grandfathers Harry Acker and Harry's brother Charles as they stood in line ready to make the run.

Dillow's other ancestor who made the run was Andrew Jackson Dillow.

An Arkansas City woman, Lucille Dorf, also attended the celebration. Her grandfather, John Binsack, made the run after moving to Arkansas City in 1890. He worked as a grocery store butcher in Ark City during the three years before the land rush.

"He had come to Ark City in a covered wagon from Herington, Kansas," Dorf said. "He made the run on horseback and staked a claim in Kay County east of Newkirk."

Dorf said her mother was born in a dugout built as a temporary shelter on the claim. Later, her grandfather built a house, where she was born. She is the oldest of four children who grew up on the homestead.