Cherokee Strip.—The tract of land known as the "Cherokee Strip," or more properly speaking the Cherokee Outlet, lies just south of the southern boundary of Kansas. It is 57 miles wide from north to south, and extends from the Arkansas river on the east to the Texas panhandle on the west. While it was in possession of the Indians its beauty and fertility were so widely advertised that many thought it a veritable paradise. Consequently several efforts were made to have the strip opened for settlement, but without avail. About 1885 a railroad company began the construction of a line from Arkansas City, Kan., toward Fort Worth, Tex., the survey passing through the Cherokee Strip. The Indians appealed to the courts for an injunction, but in the case of the Cherokee Nation vs. the Southern Kansas Railway it was decided that the United States had the power to exercise the right of eminent domain over Indian lands, and the railroad went through. This did not please the Indians, and in 1892 the strip was sold to the United States. It was opened to white settlers on Sept. 16, 1893.

In the southern part of Kansas is another tract of land once known as the Cherokee Strip, or at least it was frequently called by that name. It was ordered to be sold to white settlers by the act of Congress, approved May 11, 1872. (See Neutral Lands.)