Early Visitors to Oklahoma

Many early visitors to the frontier country that became Oklahoma came only once. For example, Franciso Vasquez de Coronade, in his quest for riches and gold, traveled through the Oklahoma Panhandle nearly 500 years ago, and never returned. Conditions of employment brought countless visitors who simply passed through Oklahoma, often recording the details of their visit. When it appeared that the Indians in the southeastern United States would be relocated to lands west of the Mississippi River, surveyors were hired to plat tribal boundaries. With the United States expanding westward, and reports of the Gold Rush in California, expeditions were launched to find better land routes across Indian Territory. With the expectations came scouts, military escorts, scientists, and adventurers. Even though many early visitors were n Oklahoma only once, many more came and state. Missionaries came to establish missions among the Five Civilized tribes and lived out their lives in Indian Territory and the State of Oklahoma. Military scouts and land-hungry farmers came to take part in land runs, found a homestead, and raised their families here. Each visitor in the centuries before statehood had unique impressions of the future Sooner State. Their stories together, whether by diary or letter, help paint the picture before statehood.