Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center [OK]
At noon on September 16, 1983, over 100,000 people raced into the Cherokee Outlet to claim a 160-acre homestead or town lot. The largest of the Oklahoma land runs, the Cherokee Outlet Land Run opened six million acres to settlement. By nightfall settlers’ camps dotted the prairie, and buildings were springing up in the newly settled towns. The new 24,000 sq. ft. Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center, opening in the spring of 2011, will feature all new exhibits, a Temporary Exhibit Gallery to host traveling exhibits, a research center, a theater and a gift shop. Gracing the landscape of the building are replicas of the Phillips University columns and “The Homesteader” statute by the renowned western artist, H. Holden. The Heritage Center’s living history area, Humphrey Heritage Village, features a collection of four historically significant buildings including the only remaining 1893 U.S. Land Office, an 1896 school, a 1902 church and a 1905 home. The Center’s most prominent educational program is Turkey Creek School, providing 4th grade students from throughout the state the opportunity to experience a school day from 1910.