The History Of Enid!

The Cherokee Outlet opened by "land run" on September 16, 1893.
The Federal Government had granted seven million acres of land to the Cherokee Nation in treaties of 1828 and 1835. The United States guaranteed to the Cherokee Nation that this land would be a perpetual outlet west for tribal hunting grounds, measured 58 miles wide and extending 220 miles along the northern border.
After the Civil War, because part of the Cherokee Nation had supported and fought for the Confederacy, the federal government demanded that a new treaty be written. The new treaty reduced the original reservation lands and permitted "friendly tribes" to be moved into the eastern end of the Outlet.
With the start of the cattle drives following the Civil War the Cherokee Indians began to use their western land to make a money. The Cherokee leased the land to the cattlemen that wanted to fatten their cattle on the grasses before taking them to Kansas.
Settlers, wanting to own their own land, viewed this use of the area as a waste of fertile farmland and pressured the government to purchase the land from the Cherokee. Congress eventually paid the $8,505,736 or about $1.40 per acre, and announced the opening of the Outlet to homesteaders.
President Grover Cleveland designated September 16, 1893 as the date of the "run" for 6,000,000 acres. On that day, 100,000 land hungry persons gathered for the land run into the Cherokee Outlet by horse, train, wagon and even on foot. From Caldwell, Kansas 15,000 people gathered to make "the Run" south into what is now Oklahoma. Caldwell was 1 of 9 places where potential settlers awaited cavalry soldiers' gunshots to start the biggest land rush in the United States.
Before the land run, the Rock Island trains had been stopping at what is now North Enid. They had a depot there and the railroad had named the town Enid. Many stories about how Enid got its name abound, one of the most plausible is that a railroad official, fond of Tennyson's book named "Idylls of the King", felt that Geraint's wife, Enid, should be honored by having a city named for her.
At the end of the run, farms were quickly being established, and the cities of Enid, Perry, Alva, and Woodward had been formed out of what had been only prairie land and train depots the day before.
The original train depot, before the run, was located in North Enid. Soon after the run, a second Enid town site was plotted south of the original one. In the beginning, the railroad refused to stop at the south township which caused a struggle between the two towns that were only three miles apart. The feud was eventually resolved through some unsavery tactics and the south Enid began to receive train service. Because a post office had already been established in the south town called Enid, a post office later built in the north town had to be designated North Enid.
At the time of the 1893 Land Run, there were 7 original counties called: O, L, K, P, Q, M and N. "O" County was provided with a county seat reserve of 320 acres, a plot of four acres for a court house, and one acre for a government land office. The county seat was Enid, and eventually "O" County became Garfield County. The settlers of each county were given the right to select the name of their county after the run. The names selected were Garfield, Grant, Kay, Noble, Pawnee, Woods and Woodward.
Through all the hardships of life on the prairie, including the Dust Bowl, Enid became the center of commerce for all of Northwest Oklahoma. Enid was the center for farming, cattle, oil and industry and even an automobile called the Geronimo was once manufactured here.

Enid Facts

July 2007,Expansion Management and the National Policy Research Council have listed Enid in their list of Top 20 small metro areas for recruitment and attraction of business.

February, 2007. Garfield County has been named one of the top 10 rural counties in which to live in Progressive Farmer Magazine. Garfield Co was named this because of outstanding health care availability, the resonable price of land, the teacher-student ratio of 13.9:1 and low crime and low pollution rate. The Progressive Farmer rating is a quality-of-life issue. There are 2,500 counties in the US that are classified as rural.

Main Street Enid received national accreditation again this year (2006) by meeting standards established by the national organization. Enid joins only 625 programs across the nation to receive the national accreditation. The accreditation process evaluates commercial revitalization programs based on criteria established by the Washington DC based organization.

Enid was featured on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Wednesday, 11 Jan 06 as one of the top five “up-and-coming” areas of the United States. judged on location, desirability, new developments, average home prices and percentage of increase over the last two years. Enid competed against 3,700 other communities around the country to earn a spot on the list.

The March 2004 issue of Inc. Magazine rated Enid, Oklahoma as one of the top 25 small metro areas for doing business (cities 150,000 and under). The May 2003 edition of Expansion Management magazine rated Enid a “5-Star Community” based on quality of life. One of Americas' finest cities Enid, Oklahoma; voted one of the top fifty cities in the United States.

Ranked the 28th best place in the nation to raise a family in a Reader's Digest poll, Enid is known as the hub for Northwest Oklahoma for medical treatment, education, entertainment, and shopping.

Interesting Facts of Enid 

• Enid is located in Northwest Oklahoma.

• Located in Garfield County
  Estimated population of about 47,045.

• Enid sits at an elevation of 1,246 feet.

• It has a land area of about 75.43 sq miles.

• Enid is in the Central time zone.

• The area code is 580.

• The median household income is $34,356.

• The average home in Enid costs only $99,000.

• Median rent is $437 per month.

• Median home value $59,200.

• The latitude of Enid is 36.395N.

• The longitude is -97.878W.

• The number of violent crimes recorded by the FBI in 2003 was 201.

• The number of murders and homicides was 1.

• The violent crime rate was 4.3 per 1,000 people.

• Vance AFB south of town had an economic impart on Enid of $220.9 million in 2006. Vance's payroll is more than $111 million with 3,455 employees counting both military and civilian, plus 816 indirect jobs.

• By 2011 an Armed Forces Reserve Center will add 40 more jobs plus National Guard troops from Enid, Alva, Woodward, Blackwell, Cherokee and Watonga which means approximately
  200-300 people adding to Enid's weekend economy.