Part 1 (1/2)

The Boy Land Boomer

by Ralph Bonehill

PREFACE

”The Boy Land Boomer” relates the adventures of a lad ith his father, joins a nu lands of Oklahoma before the time when that section of our country was thrown open to settlement under the homestead act

Oklahoma consists of a tract of land which forion was much in dispute as early as 1884 and 1885, when Captain ”Oklahoma” Payne and Captain Couch did their best to force an entrance for the boohborhood for years, and another attempt was made to settle Oklahoma in 1886, and up to 1889, when, on April 22, the land was thrown open to settleain the best claims followed, and some of these scenes are related in the present volu the and well-known leaders, but not one was better known or es as pawnee Brown This reat Indian scout and hunter, but also one who had lived e, and who had on several occasions acted as interpreter for the Government He ell beloved by his followers, who relied upon his judgs

To some it may seem that the scenes in this book are overdrawn Such, however, is not the fact There was hness in those days, and the author has continually found it necessary to tone down rather than to exaggerate in penning these scenes from real life

CAPTAIN RALPH BONEHILL

THE BOY LAND BOOMER

CHAPTER I

dick ARBUCKLE'S DISCOVERY

”Father!”

The call caht, manly chap, who had just awakened from an unusually sound sleep in the rear end of a on

The scene was upon the outskirts of Arkansas City, situated near the southern boundary line of Kansas and not many miles from the Oklahoma portion of the Indian Territory

For weeks the city had been filling up with boomers on their way to pre-empt land within the confines of Oklahoma as soon as it became possible to do so

The land in Oklahoht to go in and stake out hoovernment would not allow them to do so

The secret of the s of that section controlled everything, and as the grazing land of the territory orth hundreds of thousands of dollars to the, in every islation which tended to make the section an absolutely free one to would-be settlers

But now the pioneers, or boo for the passage of a lahich they knew o ahead without legal authority

It was a dark, te fiercely and the rain corassy plain were huddled the wagons, anis of over two hundred boomers

Here and there flared up the rely for these to be replenished, and the , canvas-covered wagons, to make themselves as comfortable as the crowded space permitted

It was the rattle of the rain on the canvas covering of the wagon which had aroused the boy

”I say father!” he repeated ”Father!”

Again there was no reply, and, kicking aside the blanket hich he had been covered, dick Arbuckle clah in the center of the vehicle to where he had left his parent resting less than three hours before