Chandler, Oklahoma: Its Own Land Run

Most Oklahoma towns opened with the great land runs of eighteen eighty-nine and eighteen ninety-three. Chandler is one of only two towns in the state to have had its very own land run. On September twenty-eighth, eighteen ninety-one, after the run was postponed from its originally planned September twenty-second date, the Sac and Fox and Iowa lands were opened for settlement, and Chandler was deliberately platted at the geographic center of the new county near a water supply called Indian Spring, now a city park.

The post office had already opened on September twenty-first, more than a week before the run, and the town was named for George Chandler, Assistant Secretary of the Interior. In the first general election, held November eighth, eighteen ninety-two, the county officially chose the name Lincoln, honoring Abraham Lincoln. Route Sixty-Six ran through Chandler after nineteen twenty-six.

The town is the Lincoln County seat today, home to the Route Sixty-Six Interpretive Center.