Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 August 1901 — TOWN DOUBLIS IN A DAY [ARTICLE]

TOWN DOUBLIS IN A DAY

Thousands Camp on the Site of Lawton, Ok. MANY (jAMBLERS ARE THEREStreeta Ara All, Laid Ont and Maur Bnslneoi Hons* Con*trncted-<~Thlrteen Thousand Homas of IflO Aore.4 Each Hare Been Drawn. Lawton, O. K., named after the lamented General Lawton and seemingly destined to be the metropolis of the new country soon to be opened following the lottery drawing at El Reno, was Friday night a city of 10,000 people. Three thousand arrived Friday and as many more arrived Saturday. It is located just outside the limits of Fort Sill. The town site proper, half a section reserved by the government, bears only building erected there by special favor and the land office. All the other buildings and 1,500 tents occupy adjoining lands, many of them being on the two quarter sections that Mr. Woods and Miss Beals, who drew the capital prizes at El Reno, will un-

doubtedly select. These claims have been considered worth $20,000 to $30,000 each, but if Lawton is half the town that it promises they will easily be worth two or three times the largest estimate. All the grafters and gamblers have moved over from El Reno in a body and one can find any kind of game and may choose his own method of being separated from his money. Nearly 1,000 Comanche Indians got their “grass money” Friday, S4O each, and they spent it like princes. - The 13,000 homes of 160 acres each in the Indian lands have been drawn, and from now on the drawing of additional names of those registered as claimants will attract no attention. Among the 13,000 lucky ones probably 25 per cent do not intend to occupy the land they have won. While they are not all land speculators, many of them were attracted by the gambling feature of this scheme and put their names on the list just to see what luck they would have. The fact that registration cost nothing and carried with it a chance of getting 160 acres of land worth from $1,500 to $4,000 drew many persons to El Reno and Lawton who never intended co stay in the country. Perhaps 1,500 to 2,000 claims will be left for the wagon emigrants and others who have been in the country for months and failed to draw a number. At the end of the sixty days these persons can go immediately to the land office and file, or if they settle upon a homestead in advance of any other person they can remain thereon three months before filing their entry. Mfiny persons wul squat upon homesteads in the hope that they will not be taken by persons who draw numbers. If the homesteads are not taken when the land office closes the squatters are safe.