346 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
line awaiting the sound, of the bugle which would give them 
permission to cross the imaginary lim protected by the troops. 
In the front rank were the best riders of each outfit mounted 
on their fleetest steeds, and behind were the “prairie schooners” 
and mule teams w r ith the families and outfits driven by the 
“boomers’ ” wives. 1 
At exactly twelve the blast from the bugle rent the air, an ex¬ 
ultant shout came forth from the throats of the waiting “boom¬ 
ers,” the quivering steeds sprang over the line, and the race for 
homes was on. One by one the reckless riders disappeared over 
the crest of a hill, closely followed by buggies and buckboards 
with the rear brought up by the heavy wagons and outfits, so 
that the spot where thousands had been camped during the fore¬ 
noon was practically deserted within half an hour after the first 
man crossed the line. 2 The land had been surveyed and laid 
out in mile-square sections with the corners marked by stones 
or blazed trees, and each settler was to be allowed to “squat” 
on a quarter of one of these sections. Frequently it would 
happen that several would locate on different parts of the; same 
quarter-section. Each would claim priority, and each would 
make improvements, and thus the way was prepared for much 
litigation and bad feeling, often leading to family feuds and 
twilight shootings. 3 
Meanwhile, the first train from the north which had also 
crossed the border at the blast of the bugle had pushed on to 
Guthrie, the spot where one of the land offices was located. 
When this train arrived, at half-past one, all there was of the 
future capital of Oklahoma was the railroad water-tank, a 
small station house, a shanty for the express company, and the 
government land office, a building about twenty by forty feet 
and located five hundred feet from the depot on the brow* of a 
gentle rise stretching eastward from the tract. A town-site 
company had already been organized 4 by a few enterprising 
1 Cosmopolitan, vol. 7, p. 461. 
2 Ibid., vol. 7, p. 461. 
s Atlantic Monthly, vol. 86, p. 329. 
4 Under the homestead laws a town-site company is permitted to 
survey and lay out in lots a district not larger than half a section, 
