OF THE

GOVERNOR OF OKLAHOMA

TO THE

SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR

FOR THE

FISCAL YEAR ENDED JUNE 30, 1902.

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.

OF THE

GOVERNOR OF OKLAHOMA

TO THE

SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR

FOR THE

FISCAL YEAR ENDED JUNE 30, 1902.

WASHINGTON:

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.

REPORT

OF THE

GOVERNOR OF OKLAHOMA.

TERRITORY OF OKLAHOMA,

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,

Guthrie, Okla., September 15, 1902.

SIR: Complying with instructions in your letter dated July 5 of the present year, I, as governor of Oklahoma, have the honor to submit a report on the general conditions of the Territory for the year ending June 30, 1902.

In submitting this report, permit me to say that Oklahoma is in every respect qualified to take a place among the States of the Union. In population, wealth, and education she is eminently fitted for immedate statehood. No reasonable argument can be made against it, while the Territory has a vast array of logical arguments in favor of early admission.

Very respectfully,

Hon. E. A. HITCHCOCK,

THOMPSON B. FERGUSON,

Secretary of the Interior, Washington, D. C.

Governor.

OKLAHOMA.

Oklahoma was formed from a portion of that vast tract of land known as the Louisiana Purchase. For more than two hundred years prior to the time of the acquisition of this land by the United States, people of the Old World, particularly the Spaniards, entertained exaggerated ideas of great treasures of gold and silver which might be obtained by him who was fortunate enough to reach the fabled fairyland of the Southwest in safety. The adventurers of old failed. to find the riches of the land which the home seeker of recent years has produced from the fertile soil with his plow and hoe. The dream of gold and silver has been realized from the great wheat and cotton fields.

The country of which Oklahoma is a part has been visited by many noted explorers and travelers, each intent upon his own object in wandering over the land. De Soto, with his band of adventurers, sought there for wealth long years before it was even dreamed that anyone would inhabit that then wild and rer ote region of the earth.