Last weekend Guthrie celebrated 89er's Day, an annual festival to commerate the land run of 1889 when the unassigned lands of Indian Territory were opened to non-native Americans for settlement. And, while I could be sharing pictures of the carnival or of the parade (if I had been there), what I'd like to show you is something that I have found facinating for years. . . and truly is the story of people coming here to live in those early days.
About fifteen years ago Steve leased 240 acres about ten miles from where we live to run his cattle on. As you drive into the property there is this old house, which as obviously been well lived in over the years and added onto several times. I've often tried to figure out which part actually was built first and which parts were added as the family grew or, maybe, as money allowed. When we first began to lease the land you could actually walk through parts of the house as long as you were careful not to step in a hole or trip over fallen ceiling boards. You could see the layers of old wallpaper and linolium floor coverings and I even scavaged a few cool old glass door knobs. I always wondered about the people that might have lived there, were there chickens or cows or kids? And, especially what it might have been like to prepare a meal in that tiny kitchen for, what may have been, a large family. There's a storm cellar that's always full of water now, but I would bet, was once full of bushel baskets of potatoes and shelves lined with goods canned for the winter.
Now, here's the part a about the land run. . . just out behind this house is what remains of an old two story log house. It's hard to say how big it once was since most of it has long since been eaten away by decades of rain and wind, but I'd say from what't left of the foundation, maybe 10 or 12 feet by about 15 feet. The logs have all been cut down and knotched with an ax and, in some places, you can see how the corners once fit together.
Now, this is a place that makes you wonder.
What makes a man, or a family, just stop at a place miles from any town and decide THIS is where they're going to stake our claim and build their lives. I actually know how the land run worked and understand how someone may have had to take whatever land they could find. But I can't imagine how difficult must it have been in those early years to grow enough food to feed the family that lived in that log cabin or begin farming or make it through Oklahoma's weather extremes. I wonder if there were there children born in that cabin or how many people might have been sick or even died while living in that little log cabin a days ride from the nearest big city.
Anyway, that's my 89er's story, even though I'm not sure that the builders of the cabin actually made the run. But, from the looks of it, they couldn't have been far behind. Everytime we go out to 'the lease' I wonder about the two houses and wish I could 'see' what it might have been like to live there when they were new.
