368 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences\, Arts, and Letters. 
Washita and Canadian were given slight extensions into the 
new districts in order to rectify their boundaries. The Secre¬ 
tary designated Hon. W. A. Richards, assistant commissioner 
of the general land office, to take charge of the opening under 
his instructions, and full powers were given to him. 1 The as¬ 
sistant commissioner immediately proceeded to locate!, reserve 
and survey the three county seats of Anadarko, Lawton and 
Hobart, and then took charge of the registration. Estimating 
that three-fourths of the entries would register at El Reno, 
twenty-five of the thirty-three land office clerks were sent there, 
and the other eight were sent to the Lawton office which was 
for the time being located at Fort Sill. 2 Many of those who 
registered at Fort Sill came in wagons and went into camp in 
the valley of Cache Creek upon the military reservation. 
At times there were ten thousand people camped there, but 
good order prevailed throughout, both in camp and at the reg¬ 
istration booth, which closed at six P. M., July 26th, with a 
total registration of twenty-nine thousand. The clerks were 
then transported to El Reno to assist in the drawing. 3 
At El Reno, six booths were opened for registration at nine 
A. M. July 10th. Here there were several thousands in line, 
many of whom had been waiting for twenty-four hours or more 
to register, and as there were quite a number of women among 
them, the commissioner at once established an extra booth ex¬ 
clusively for women. At first there was some: disorder around 
several of the booths due to the eagerness to- register early, but 
as soon as it Was explained that all applicants would stand an 
equal show, no matter when they registered, the disorder 
ceased; and thereafter there was very little disturbance of 
any kind in the city, in spite of the fact that for thirty days it 
had to care for ten times its normal population. On July 13th 
an accident occurring to the pumping machinery of the Eil 
Reno waterworks! threatened a serious situation, but the city 
officials stationed casks of ice water at convenient places on the 
1 Sec. Int. Rept., 1901, pp. lxxiv, ccxliv. 
2 Ibid., pp. ccviii-cclix. 
3 Ibid., p. cclix. 
