Top Facts & Lists, USA

Oklahoma Sooners

Oklahoma State University and their sports teams are nick named ‘Sooners’. Every time Sooners is mentioned there is very often an image of a small bird and or a buffalo. I hadn’t come across this name before but assumed that the title belonged to the type of bird whose image was everywhere.

It was the symbol on licence plates as well as an art installation on one of bridges acros

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s the I-40.

I asked someone in Starbucks if I was correct and learned that I was completely wrong.

It is in fact an historical term used during the land grabs of the Western Expansion.

Effectively they prospectors who went out ahead to lay claim to land before the official release of land grab for sale by the government during the Western Expansion. So those entering the region before 12.00 on 22 April 1889 were dubbed ‘Sooners’. The area was known as the Unassigned Lands.

Oklahoma’s Panhandle has another historical explanation and an area released by Texas.
Under the Compromise of 1850, Texas surrendered its lands north of 36°30′ latitude. The 170-mile strip of land, a ‘neutral strip’, was left with no state or territorial ownership from 1850 until 1890. It was officially called the “Public Land Strip” and was commonly referred to as ‘No Man’s Land.’ In 1890 Oklahoma made it part of the state and in 1907 Oklahoma became the 46th state of the Union.
Amazingly the panhandle of Oklahoma cover a whopping 3.6 million acres. It measures 166 miles across the top of Texas and joins New Mexico.
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