The Big Pasture was of prairie land, in what is now southwestern

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

. The land had been reserved for

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to free range (roam around) and consume wild vegetations in order to feed conversion ratio, convert the otherwise indigestible (by human diges ...

use by the

Kiowa Kiowa ( ) or Cáuigú () people are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribe and an Indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colora ...

Comanche The Comanche (), or Nʉmʉnʉʉ (, 'the people'), are a Tribe (Native American), Native American tribe from the Great Plains, Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the List of federally recognized tri ...

, and

Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

tribes after their reserve was opened for settlement by a lottery conducted during June through August 1901. The tribes, however, leased most of the land out to large ranchers and it became known as ''Big Pasture.'' The Big Pasture was maintained for grazing until June 5, 1906, when Congress passed an act (Chapter 2580, 34 Stat. 213) requiring that it be disposed of by allotting , in severalty, to each child born into the tribes after the act of 1900. The remaining land was sold by sealed bid in December 1906 and the proceeds placed in the U.S. Treasury for the tribes. This was the last large tract of land opened for settlement in Oklahoma Territory.

History

If newspaper accounts are to be believed,

Coronado Coronado may refer to: People * Coronado (surname) Coronado is a Spanish surname derived from the village of Cornado, near A Coruña, Galicia. People with the name * Francisco Vásquez de Coronado (1510–1554), Spanish explorer often referred t ...

crossed the middle of the Big Pasture in his search for

Quivira Quivira was a province of the ancestral Wichita people, located near the Great Bend of the Arkansas River in central Kansas, The exact site may be near present-day Lyons extending northeast to Salina. The Wichita city of Etzanoa, which flouris ...

Cooper, ''Chronicles of Oklahoma'', 1957: "''The Temple Tribune'' klahoma August 22, 1907, Eschiti, Oklahoma.—While excavating on a right-of-way near here a party of scraper drivers unearthed a historic tombstone that appears to have been set in a graveyard that once existed here. On the front of the marble slab is an inscription printed in undiscernable Spanish, above the inscription being the name, 'Don Juan Valerez El Padre, Madrid Senor de la Bonito Senorito.' Beneath the inscription is the date, '1542.'" The Big Pasture was the scene of a well publicized

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a Canis, canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus, subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, includin ...

hunt by

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...

in 1905. He especially wanted to see John "Jack (Catch 'm Alive)" Abernathy from

Frederick Frederick may refer to: People * Frederick (given name), the name Given name Nobility = Anhalt-Harzgerode = * Frederick, Prince of Anhalt-Harzgerode (1613–1670) = Austria = * Frederick I, Duke of Austria (Babenberg), Duke of Austria fro ...

catch wolves with his bare hands. This hunt and his visit with

Quanah Parker Quanah Parker (, ; – February 23, 1911) was a war leader of the Kwahadi ("Antelope") band of the Comanche Nation. He was likely born into the Nokoni ("Wanderers") band of Tabby-nocca and grew up among the Kwahadis, the son of Kwahadi Coman ...

are often cited as reasons for his determination to create the nearby Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge and to return

buffalo Buffalo most commonly refers to: * True buffalo or Bubalina, a subtribe of wild cattle, including most "Old World" buffalo, such as water buffalo * Bison, a genus of wild cattle, including the American buffalo * Buffalo, New York, a city in the n ...

to the wild. The Wichita Mountains had previously been designated only as a

Forest Preserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

when first put under protection by

William McKinley William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until Assassination of William McKinley, his assassination in 1901. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Repub ...

in 1901.

Geography

The Big Pasture covered a strip of land north and south and {{convert, 36, mi, km, 0 east and west in what is now parts of

Cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

and

Tillman Tillman is a surname and given name of English origin and an Americanized spelling of Tillmann. Other variants of the name include Tilman and Dillman. Notable people with the name Tillmann include: Surname *Albert Tillman (1928–2004), Americ ...

counties. The towns of Randlett, Devol,

Grandfield Grandfield is a city in Tillman County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 919 as of the 2020 United States census. It is located about 30 driving miles southeast of the county seat of Frederick, and is situated at the intersection of ...

, Loveland, and Hollister (from east to west) are located in what was the Big Pasture. Randlett is home to Big Pasture Public Schools, a consolidated school system serving Devol, Cookietown, and Randlett. Before settlement, the Big Pasture was mostly plains cut by two timbered draws. Captain

Randolph B. Marcy Randolph Barnes Marcy (April 9, 1812 – November 22, 1887) was an officer in the United States Army, chiefly noted for his frontier guidebook, the ''Prairie Traveler'' (1859), based on his own extensive experience of pioneering in the west. This ...

in his Red River expedition in 1852 noted that the timbered regions he found along Cache Creek were the last of any size until he reached the foothills of the Rockies.

Footnotes

Bibliography

*Cooper, Charles M.
The Big Pasture
''Chronicles of Oklahoma'' 35:2 (April 1957) 138-146 (retrieved August 16, 2006). *Kappler, Charles (Editor)

''Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties''. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904. 1:708-713 (retrieved August 16, 2006). *Kappler, Charles (Editor)

''Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties''. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904. 1:184-185 (retrieved August 16, 2006).

External links

History of Oklahoma Territory Natural history of Oklahoma