William then became more active in the Payne movement and checking out locations that might make suitable homesteads.

In February, 1883, he led a group of Boomers into Indian Territory to stake out land claims.

The army intervened, arrested the would-be settlers and interned them at Fort Reno, until they returned to Kansas.

[1][a] William Couch became the sole leader of the movement after David L. Payne died of a heart attack in Wellington, Kansas, on November 28, 1884.

One of his first acts in this new role was to lead a group of about 300 would-be settlers from Wellington across the Cherokee Outlet to a suitable area inside Indian Territory.

A detachment of the U.S. Cavalry quickly arrived to cut off the Boomers' supplies, after which the invaders were arrested and forced out of the territory.

After being released from custody, Couch spent the next few years in Washington, D. C., lobbying for the opening of the Unassigned Lands to public settlement.