336 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts , and Letters. 
line of location through Indian Territory, title to be made 
good when the Indian title should be extinguished. 1 Although 
this grant had been forfeited through failure to complete the 
road in the specified time, the company, or its successor, still 
felt it had some claim to the grant, which would be strengthened 
by opening the territory to white settlement. Moreover, it was 
evident that the earning capacity of all the different roads 
through the territory would be vastly increased by the addi¬ 
tional traffic which would come with its settlement. 2 
The movement seems to have been started by two* men, Col. 
E. G. Boudinot, a Cherokee Indian and a talented lawyer and 
lobbyist in Washington, holding the position of clerk of the 
House committee on private claims, 3 and C. C. Carpenter, 
a man of unsavory reputation in connection with a similar en¬ 
terprise for opening the Black Hills to settlement. 4 In the 
Chicago Times of February 17, 1879, Col. Boudinot published 
an article calling attention to certain lands in Oklahoma which 
he asserted were open to settlement, and, in answer to numerous 
inquiries, he prepared a map and a letter declaring all western 
Indian Territory below the Cherokee Strip, excepting the Sac 
and Fox, Pottawatomie and Wichita reservations^ to be 
property of the United States and open to settlement under 
the homestead laws. This map and letter were widely circu¬ 
lated throughout the country and attracted the attention of 
many homeseekers. 5 
Early in 1879, O. O. Carpenter, presumably in the pay of 
the railroads, issued a circular and spread notices through the 
newspapers of Kansas to the effect that Oklahoma was open 
to settlement, and inviting people to take possession of it. 6 
Many worthy people were attracted by these notices and be¬ 
gan to move toward Oklahoma. The attention of President 
Hayes having been called to this state of affairs, he issued a 
1 Congressional Record, vol. 17, Appendix, p. 181. 
2 Chautauquan, June 1889, p. 533. 
s Ibid. 
4 Sen. Ex. Doc., 50, 48 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 49. 
s Ibid., p. 51. 
e Ibid., pp. 8, 52. 
