MEDFORD—Step back in time during the opening of the Cherokee Outlet at the 1893 Land Run Historical Center in downtown Medford, which is the county seat for Grant County.
The Land Run of 1893, also known as the Cherokee Strip Land Run, marked the opening the Cherokee Outlet to settlers.
The Cherokee Outlet (which today covers most of Northwest Oklahoma excluding the Panhandle) was one of three areas the Cherokee Nation had acquired in 1835 after resettlement in present-day Eastern Oklahoma as part of the Treaty of New Echota.
This land in northwestern Indian Territory was largely unoccupied, and people known as Boomers urged the United States government to open it up for homesteading. They prevailed in convincing President Benjamin Harrison to do so.
The Land Run of 1893 was the largest of the Oklahoma land rushes in the 1890s, with an estimated 100,000 participants—most of whom were white immigrants—seeking a new homestead by stampeding and vying to stake their claim within 6.3 million acres when the gun sounded at noon on Sept. 16, 1893.
This particular land rush resulted in the establishment of several counties, including Grant, Garfield, Woods, and Woodward Counties, with land offices at Enid, Alva, and Woodward.
History in the making
About 15 years ago, when several Medford alums were in town for homecoming, they started reminiscing about their hometown and its history. That’s when the idea of a historical center was born, said museum board director Mark Bramlett.
At the time Medford did have a museum but it was in bad shape, he noted, so Gen. Dennis Reimer (class of 1957) and the late Robert “Bob” Haddican (class of 1947) plus LeRoy Boyer joined forces to form a museum committee.
Reimer had served as the 33rd Army Chief of Staff in Washington, D.C.; Haddican was retired from OG&E and living in Norman; and Boyer was an attorney in the Oklahoma City area.
According to Bramlett, himself a 1974 graduate of Medford High School, Haddican spearheaded the fundraising over a period of seven years so the museum could be built from the ground up debt-free.
Other residents in Grant County pitched in alongside Medford townspeople to make the history center a reality.
The main objective was to preserve the history of Grant County, starting with the 1893 land rush that created the towns within the county including Pond Creek (which was the original county seat until 1908) to the south and Wakita to the west.
A majority of the artifacts donated to the museum came from families in the area, Bramlett said, adding “family heritage is the draw.”
The 1893 Land Run Historical Center officially opened Sept. 23, 2017.
Glancing at the past
The museum features not only an enormous exhibit hall, but a research library so visitors can find their ancestry among the original land claim books and other print or digital resources and a space that recreated a one-room schoolhouse so local students can learn about Cherokee Outlet history through reenactments and presentations.
“An old schoolteacher had a lot of knowledge that she shared,” Bramlett said about the classroom. It’s an amalgam of a one-room schoolhouse, not any one school or district as there were dozens of country schools in the county, he added, although the sign for Valley Center School, District 56, which was north of Medford, hangs in the classroom.
The exhibit hall houses permanent exhibits as well as temporary exhibits. The goal is to have rotating exhibits that zone in on the history of each town in Grant County, Bramlett said.
The late Oma Lea Pitcher Rogers (class of 1967) and June Frieouf (class of 1947) were local ladies who stepped up to curate the centerpiece of the exhibit hall—an inside look at pioneer home life.
Bramlett said the pair set up the bedroom, kitchen, sitting room, and wash room scenes with care and consideration to tell a story through the furniture, relics, and mannequins.
Beckoning travelers to the museum is the bell tower that was built in 2019.
Inside the bell tower is the original bell that hung at the Presbyterian Church/Christian Church in the nearby rural community of Jefferson. When that church disbanded, the bell was purchased by Medford residents Loren and Joan Shire who eventually donated it to the center.
Also on the museum grounds are a couple of longhorn steer sculptures grazing the front lawn that were generously donated by members of the museum board in 2023.
Building toward the future
Born and raised in Medford, Bramlett’s great-grandfather came in the very land run the museum centers on. He operated Medford’s flour mill until a spark from the nearby railroad tracks hit the mill and started a fire that ripped through downtown Medford, burning it to the ground in June 1911.
Prior to that, all of the downtown businesses had been built out of wood, Bramlett said, so “they built back in brick” and still stands today, including Medford’s bank, which has been in Bramlett’s family since 1912. His grandfather took over, then his dad, and now it’s Bramlett and his brothers.
While Bramlett’s children don’t seem interested in carrying on the family business, he plans to carry on with drawing interest to Medford’s business, which is why he’s involved with the museum.
The Medford native enjoys giving museum manager Loeta Hunter, who moved to town in 2002 and was hired in November 2023, a hard time about her name—it is pronounced “LOW-eeta” not “LEE-ota” as Bramlett likes to say.
Hunter said during Medford’s homecoming every year, several people still stop in to reminisce, and obviously that makes the museum board including Bramlett happy.
1893 Land Run Historical Center, on the northwest corner of U.S. 81 and Cherokee Street, Medford, is open Wednesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $4 per person. Call (580) 541-1047 for more information.