Oklahoma Panhandle No Mans Land

The Oklahoma Panhandle, known historically as No Man's Land, was not acquired by the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase. Instead, it was acquired through U.S. land acquisitions following the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). The area had previously been within Spanish Texas, part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain from 1519 to 1821, then passed to independent Mexico in 1821, and to the Republic of Texas in 1836. The 1890 Oklahoma Organic Act incorporated No Man's Land along with the western half of Indian Territory into the organized Oklahoma Territory, distinct from the unorganized Indian Territory to the east. Oklahoma Territory existed from May 2, 1890, until November 16, 1907, when it was merged with Indian Territory to form the state of Oklahoma.

Pre-contact era

The panhandle region was part of the broader territory associated with Spanish Texas and later the contested borderlands between the United States and Mexico. Spanish Texas encompassed the region within the Viceroyalty of New Spain from 1519 until 1821, during which Spanish authority was concentrated mainly around missions, presidios, ranches, and settlements.

Colonial history

Territorial period

The 1890 Oklahoma Organic Act organized the western half of Indian Territory and a strip of country north of Texas known as No Man's Land (now the Oklahoma panhandle) into Oklahoma Territory. Native American reservations in the new territory were then opened to settlement in a series of land runs in 1890, 1891, and 1893. Seven counties were defined upon the creation of the territory, originally designated by number and eventually becoming Logan, Cleveland, Oklahoma, Canadian, Kingfisher, Payne, and Beaver counties. In 1896, Oklahoma Territory also acquired Greer County, Texas, when the Supreme Court resolved United States v. State of Texas in favor of the federal government.

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