The Cherokee Outlet, popularly and commonly called the Cherokee Strip, was granted in 1828 as a hunting outlet west of the land the Cherokee Indians were assigned in Indian Territory, now Northwestern Oklahoma. Coronado in 1541 passed through that part of the Strip now Northwestern Woods County in his search for the supposedly rich city of Quivera. In 1806 Don Falcundo Malgares, as a result of str
ong Spanish interested in the Zebulon Pike expedition, crossed the Cimarron River near Freedom and cut across Woods County, going into Kansas where the Salt Fork River crosses the Kansas line, looking for Pike. In 1843 Captain Nathan Boone and his men, sent by the United States Government to check the safety of trails headed west, also passed west of Freedom. The Cherokee Outlet also served as a roadway for the transportation of Texas cattle to the north, and then as a grazing area for the herds of the cattlemen. In 1883 a Cherokee Strip Livestock Association was incorporated to deal with the Indians and this resulted in a five year lease with the Cherokee Indian Nation at $100.00 per year. This worked well for both parties, and in 1888 a new lease was negotiated at double the price. Meanwhile the Unassigned Lands in Central Oklahoma had been opened to settlers, and pressure was put upon the government to buy the Cherokee Strip and open it in a great land rush also. The Strip, containing over six million acres, was bought for $8.3 million. The Run into the Cherokee Strip was held September 16, 1893. County, later called Woods County, was one of the seven counties organized in the Strip. The Cherokee Strip then ceased to be political entity but remains as a part of the heritage of its people. The Cherokee Strip Museum Association was organized January 1961 by representatives of the civic and social clubs of Alva. The Museum was located on the second floor of the Herod Hall at Northwestern State College where articles were contributed by individual families. When the building was remodeled in 1963, the Museum articles were stored on the college campus. In May 1965, the Museum, located on the lower floor of the Alva City Library, was again visited by schools, civic clubs and individuals. In June 1975, the Morton Share Trust presented the former Alva City Hospital on 14th and Highway 64, to the Cherokee Strip Museum Association for the New Museum’s location. The Morton Share Trust has contributed to the renovation of the building and its surroundings while the furnishings and maintenance of the building are the responsibility of the Museum Association and the community. The Cherokee Strip Museum is readily available to travelers as well as the people of the area and the state.
