Cimarron Territory

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Cimarron Territory, a provisional name for No Man's Land from 1886 until 1890, was never officially recognized by the United States government.

The organization of Cimarron Territory began soon after L.Q.C. Lamar, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, in 1886, declared the area open to settlement by squatters. The area's only order was maintained by the vigilance committees provided by the cattlemen, and the thousands of new settlers recognized the need for a broader government.

The settlers soon formed their own vigilance committees, which organized a board charged with forming a territorial government. The board enacted a preliminary code of law and divided the strip into three districts divided by the meridians. They also called for a general election to choose three members from each district to meet on March 4, 1887, to form the government.

The elected council met as planned, elected Owen G. Chase as president, and named a full cabinet. They also enacted further laws and divided the strip into five counties (Benton, Beaver*, Palo Duro, Optima, and Sunset), three senatorial districts (with three member from each district), and seven delegate districts (with two members from each district). The members from these districts were to be the legislative body for the proposed territory. Elections were held November 8, 1887, and the legislature met for the first time on December 5, 1887.

After the meeting in March, Owen G. Chase went to Washington, D.C. to lobby for admission to Congress as the delegate from the new territory. A group disputing the Chase organization met, and elected and sent its own delegate to Washington. A bill was introduced to accept Chase but was never brought to a vote. Neither delegation was able to persuade Congress to accept the new territory. Another delegation went in 1888 but did no better.

In 1889, the Unassigned Lands were opened for settlement and many of the residents went there. The population, generously estimated at 10,000, fell to about 3,000. The passage of the Organic Act in 1890 assigned No Man's Land to the new Oklahoma Territory, and ended the short-lived Cimarron Territory.

* There is now a Beaver County, Oklahoma that originally encompassed the entire Oklahoma Panhandle.

[edit] Related to Cimarron Territory

Edna Ferber wrote a novel called Cimarron, which was published in 1929.
A 1931 RKO Radio Pictures film version of Ferber's novel, Cimarron won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
The 1931 picture was remade in 1960 by MGM, Cimarron directed by Anthony Mann.
Cimarron Strip was a United States television series based loosely on the Cimarron Territory. It was produced by CBS, running only one season (23 episodes), debuting on September 7, 1967 and ending on September 19, 1968.
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron is an animated film, released in 2002, and set in the region during the post-Civil War era.