Okie Legacy

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Texas County

Texas County... is just east of Cimarron County out in the Oklahoma Panhandle. It is the middle county and one of the most prosperous counties in the midwest. It is the center of the largest sweet gas field in the USA. The jobs they do in that area are cattle feeding, irrigation and dryland farming.

The main line of the Rock Island RR from Chicago, IL to Los Angles, CA runs through Guymon, which is the county seat. Highways 54 and 64 also intersect this panhandle metropolis in the middle of nowhere and Oklahoma's No Mans Land.

Texas County was the geographical center of the 1930s Dust Bowl. Parts of "Grapes of Wrath" were filmed north of Guymon.

No Mans Land...

According to "The Panhandle History - Northwest Flats Heritage, 1890-1990", published in 1990, the panhandle is a little more than 34 miles wide and a fraction longer than 168 miles. It contains 5738 square miles and is larger than Connecticut and 4-1/2 times the size of Rhode Island.

The Panhandle is bordered on the east by Oklahoma; the north by Kansas and Colorado; the west by New Mexico and the south by Texas. It was a part of the Texas territory until 1850, when Texas gave it up because everything north of the 36th parallel went with the Union and Texas permitted slavery.

The south boundary line of the Kansas territory was established around 1854... The east and west lines established previously by land grants. The Act establishing the Kansas southline completely legislated the panhandle strip of land out of the Union and left "No Mans Land" to fend for itself.

By 1885... The Supreme Court decision come out stating that this strip of land was NOT part of the Cherokee Outlet. The Secretary of Interior at that time stated it was "Public Domain" and subject to "Squatters Rights."

Until 1891... The six-shooter was law of the land and the strip became a "No Mans Land." A haven for criminals and outlaws.

May 2, 1890... And the Enabling Act signed by President Benjamin Harrison attached the strip to Oklahoma Territory. Then the farmers and the ranchers were at it because of the fence the farmers were building around their crops. Finally, "No Mans Land" found it's permanent home and was the last territory to be given final claims and ownership in Oklahoma. It was divided into three (3) counties -- Cimarron, Texas and Beaver.