Buck—The Settlement of Oklahoma. 
359 
four on the south. These booths were to be kept open ten hours 
daily from September 11th until discontinued, and every person 
who desired to enter was to be required to appear at one of the 
booths and make a declaration in Writing before one of the offi¬ 
cers, showing his qualifications to initiate a claim. A certifi¬ 
cate was then to be issued entitling the holder to enter after the 
opening, and the military officials who guarded the line were 
to let no one in without such certificates until the booths were 
discontinued. The certificates were to be issued in different 
forms for homestead and for town lot entry. 1 
The opening of the Outlet had been so extensively advertised 
by the railroad companies and the public press, that when the 
booths were opened, the rush for certificates was so great as to 
necessitate the employment of additional help and the erec¬ 
tion of new booths; but although the number of applicants 
vastly exceeded the expectations of the officials, all those who 
were qualified were supplied with certificates before the hour ^f 
opening. There was considerable suffering at times among the 
thousands who were waiting to register, on account of the in¬ 
tense heat and stifling dust. Then, too, when twenty thousand 
people crowded around a single booth the water supply often 
ran short, for it was impossible to locate all the booths at places 
at once suitable for entry and provided with a sufficient supply 
of water. But aside from these unavoidable hardships, the 
plan was carried to a successful conclusion, and prevented to a 
large extent the wrongful occupation which had marred the 
first opening. 2 
Twelve o’clock noon, the sixteenth of September, 1893, was 
fixed as the opening hour, and at that time an area larger than 
many of the states was added to' the public domain. One hun¬ 
dred and fifteen thousand certificates had been issued from the 
different booths, and it is presumable that at least one hundred 
thousand people took part in this, the wildest and most excit¬ 
ing run for homes that ever took place. The fertile eastern 
half of the Strip and the Pawnee and Nez Perces reservations 
1 Sec. Int. Rept., 1893, vol. 1, pp. x-xi. 
2 Ibid., p. xi. 
