Cherokee Strip Land Rush, Edited by Jay M. Price (Images of America)

On September 16, 1893, over 100,000 people converged on the edges of six million acres just south of the Kansas border, a parcel officially designated the Cherokee Outlet but more commonly called the Cherokee Strip. This was the largest of the rushes, where officials threw open whole parcels of land at one time. The opening of the outlet drew people with a wide mix of motivations. Those who arrived that stifling September found heat, dust, wretched conditions, high prices--and hope. Among them was William Prettyman, whose photographs remain the most stirring record of the event. When the starting gun went off at noon, the blurred images of people and animals racing across the dusty terrain became part of the memory of a whole region.