Payne Boomer Camp Park - Oklahoma City, OK
Posted by: hamquilter
N 35° 28.793 W 097° 29.970
14S E 636124 N 3927297
This park has been established on an historic site, which featured significantly in the settlement of Oklahoma.
Waymark Code: WMM3ER
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Date Posted: 07/14/2014
Views: 3
This park is located on Stanton L. Young Blvd. in the center of the OU Health Sciences Center. The park is a greenbelt set lower than the surrounding streets. Along the southern side is a wood retaining wall, with beautiful plantings, and a small patio with benches and a picnic table. The area is heavily treed and provides a cool oasis on a hot summer day. It is a lovely place for workers in the nearby buildings to eat their lunch.
There are no amenities at the park except for the picnic table. This area is meant to commemorate the site of David L. Payne's "Boomer" Campsite, where early arrivals to the Unassigned Lands camped from 1884 to 1889, awaiting settlement approval.
Wikipedia sums it up nicely: The term "Boomer" relating to Oklahoma refers to participants in the "Boomer Movement," white settlers who believed the Unassigned Lands were public property and open to anyone for settlement, not just Indian tribes. Their belief was based on a clause in the Homestead Act of 1862 which said that any settler could claim 160 acres of "public land." Some Boomers entered the Unassigned Lands and were removed more than once by the United States Army. Charles C. Carpenter was the earliest leader of the Boomer movement, succeeded by David L. Payne, who was succeeded by William L. Couch.
The park was made possible by the generous donation from nearby Presbyterian Hospital.