History of Oklahoma City
The term "Unassigned lands" was first coined in 1879 by Elias C. Boudinot, a mixed-blood Cherokee Journalist, who believed that the territory should be open to white settlers.
The lands were crossed by five rivers, including "the Canadian, the North Canadian, the Cimarron, the Deep Fork, and the Little", which provided natural borders, and a perfect combination of thin topsoil for grazing cattle, and rich bottomland soil for raising crops, thus making it greatly desired by white settlers who wanted to stake their claims to the inexpensive lands.
[2] Prior to the opening of these Indigenous territories, the Boomer Movement saw forced raids and staked claims at sites in the unassigned lands, such as in present day Oklahoma City and Stillwater from 1879 to 1888.
These raids, publicly led by David L. Payne and William Couch only saw brief success, and settled a town known as Ewing, present day Oklahoma City, in 1880.
[6] Classen worked closely with Shartel to add numerous housing divisions to accommodate the growing population, the first being the Highland Parks Addition in 1900.
Shartel and Classen collaborated once again in 1902 with the creation of the Metropolitan Railroad Company, which created an efficient mass-transport system for downtown Oklahoma City.
[5] Aside from his collaborations with Anton Classen, John Shartel bought twenty acres of land located at modern day 7th and 10th street, which became known as the Florence Addition.
By 1935, rural migrants and unemployed workers had built a massive shanty town (or "Hooverville" after president Herbert Hoover) on the south bank of the North Canadian River.
A municipal-owned Elm Grove camp built in 1932 and which offered better amenities to residents who paid $1 a day or donated eight hours or labor.
He believed that annexation would allow the city to grow to provide the facilities industry required but which the surrounding communities did not have the resources to support.
[12]: 204 In a 1965 special election, the Oklahoma City voters approved a sales tax by a margin of more than 2-1 to raise funds for expanding services.
The persistence of the experiment and the 94% rejection rate of damage claims led to turmoil at all levels of government and embroiled Senator Mike Monroney's office in a battle with the Federal Aviation Administration.
The city leaders then engaged in a disastrous program of "urban renewal" which succeeded primarily in demolishing much of the aging theater district.
Despite popular conjecture, the impressive Biltmore Hotel was not originally targeted to be taken down by the Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority.
[15] The city had planned to build a massive shopping mall called "The Galleria" downtown, but money for renewal ran out before they could construct more than the parking garage for it.
With the exception of The Myriad Gardens, little was done to improve the inner city or the central business district during this time, even as the oil boom of the late 1970s brought a flood of money into the area.
MAPS called for a five-year, one-cent sales tax to fund a new ballpark, a canal through Bricktown, a new central library, a large indoor arena, renovations to the fairgrounds and the civic center, and a series of low water dams on the North Canadian River to make it attractive and accessible to small boats.
In the midst of this atmosphere of optimism and change, Timothy McVeigh drove a rented truck full of explosives to the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995.
The memorial was designed by Oklahoma City architects Hans and Torrey Butzer, and Sven Berg and was dedicated by President Clinton on April 19, 2000, exactly five years after the bombing.
