Before the Founding of Lawton
Land Lottery and Auction
Game
Teaching Materials
|
The Land Lottery and Land Auction in Lawton changed history forever. By the time night fell on August 6th, the last frontier in America was gone. But the new settlers were too busy to care. |
|
|
The
evening of August 6th was hot and windy. A man strolled over his
newly claimed land. Goo Goo Avenue ran down the middle of his claim.
It was a noisy, crowded street. Saloons in tents lined both sides
of the dirt street. James R. Woods, now known as "Hog Woods", owned
this claim.
People on Goo Goo Avenue booed and hooted wherever Hog Woods went. Do you think he was ever sorry about the way he staked his claim? |
| The Wichita Mountains shimmered in the haze. Night fell in the new city at the end of a still, cloudless day. Mattie Beal and her brother Frank packed up their tent. They rode through Goo Goo Avenue to a little hill. The hill ran the full length of her claim. Mattie and Frank could see the mountains. The drought had left the land dry and dusty. But the south winds still cooled the hilltop. |
|
|
Mattie
and Frank pitched their tent at the highest point. In a day or two,
Frank would buy lumber from a young man named Charles Payne. Frank
would build a little house on the tent site. Even though she would be sleeping
in a tent, Mattie would be happy. The telephone girl with a silly
dream was home. And so were thousands of others.
As August 6th ended, so did 19th-century America. A new century started. The Kiowa-Comanche-Apache reservation was opened to the settlers. And the frontier was gone. |
 |
|
 |