Oklahoma City April 27, 1889
— The '89er Trail —
The Citizens' Survey, begun the day after the Run, was reconciled with the survey of the Seminole Town and Improvement Company at a mass meeting on April 27.
As the Citizens' Committee and its surveyors worked north from the section line at Reno, a subcommittee of five - the awarding committee met with rival claimants on each surveyed lot, listened to their stories and awarded claims. Crowds gathered around, and a clever settler nailed three boards in a triangle to separate the subcommittee and claimants from the curious observers. The work of the awarding committee proceeded smoothly without rancor.
By Friday, the surveyors had reached Main Street, where they encountered major discrepancies with the survey of the Seminole Town Company and hostility from settlers whose claims would be threatened by realignment. Continuation of the Citizens' Survey would throw hundreds of settlers off their lots.
Saturday morning, a nasty confrontation ensued with threats of violence from Seminole settlers. Another mass meeting was called that afternoon with Angelo Scott again presiding. A conference committee of ten was chosen, five from north and five from south of Main Street, to reconcile the conflicting surveys.
The conference committee quickly went to work and at dusk that Saturday the citizens adopted the report
of the conference committee by acclamation.
Photo captions:
Left: The conference committee created jogs in the streets at Grand and inserted "wedge lots" between Grand and Main to reconcile the two surveys. The jogs remained in Grand (renamed Sheridan) until the City built the Myriad Convention Center and Myriad Gardens in the 1970s.
Research Division of the Oklahoma Historical Society
Right: The Awarding Committee, a subcommittee of the Citizens' Committee of 14,
continued to hear conflicting claims and award lot certificates for weeks after
the survey work was complete. Research Division of the Oklahoma Historical Society
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