Dear Reader,
For me, the most difficult part of writing is the world-building. Before the plot can start rolling, the story must be anchored in a place. Decisions are made on the layout of the town, the floorplans of significant buildings, and the location of physical landmarks. I start with a blank page, and from that I have to create a community for my characters to inhabit.
The participants of the 1889 Land Run had the same task before them, but instead of looking at a blank sheet of paper from the safety of their office, they had a blank prairie. Instead of typing words, they had to pick up their hammers and shovels and construct homes and towns. And instead of there being one author at the keyboard, proceeding in an orderly fashion, there were instantly thousands of “creatives,” all working with their own idea of what the result should be.
As expected, the explosion method of city planning was not ideal. Conflict was rife from before the cannons sounded until today, when some city grids don’t match up because two founders started at different points and neither would compromise. Instead of discovering one quirky historical tidbit to expand on and fictionalize for this story, I had to limit the number of facts I included because many of them were unbelievable, although true.
The boomers’ illegal homesteading, people selling plots of land in cities that didn’t exist, jumping from moving trains, the voting methods and fraud, a photograph of founding fathers being used against them in court, and even the pay-as-you-go outhouses—all of that happened. I couldn’t begin to fit all the madness of that time into this story, so I encourage you to read up on it yourself. Two books I recommend are The Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889 by Stan Hoig and The Birth of Guthrie by Lloyd H. McGuire Jr.
One place where I did take historical license is that the term sooner wasn’t used during the 1889 race. Best I can tell, it was first used in court on October 1, 1890. Before that, the men who snuck across the starting line early were called moonlighters or moonshiners, but as both of those words have other meanings now, and sooner has been embraced as uniquely Oklahoman, I let it appear a year early.
Thank you for allowing me to share Frisco and Caroline’s story, along with some of my state’s history. If you’d like to hear about new projects, you can find me and news about my books at www.reginajennings.com or on Facebook. Please stay in touch. I love hearing from my readers.
God bless, and thanks for reading!
—Regina