00:00Why does Oklahoma have this strange panhandle, and why is it not part of Texas?
00:05You see, in the past, this panhandle was actually part of Texas, which was an independent country at that time.
00:11In 1845, Texas decided to join the United States, but there was one problem, the Missouri Compromise,
00:17which prohibited slavery north of 36.5 parallel, and Texas was a slave-owning territory with part of its land above that line.
00:25Texas was faced with a choice, give up slavery or sell some of its territory, and it chose the second one.
00:31As a result, for decades, the panhandle was formally unclaimed and became known as No Man's Land.
00:36However, the U.S. government soon passed the Homestead Act, allowing anyone who lived on unorganized territory for five years to own 160 acres of land.
00:45This resulted in a land rush, as tens of thousands of people at the same time began to occupy No Man's Land, and land belonging to the native population.
00:54Over time, the area became part of the Oklahoma Territory, and then finally formed into the state of Oklahoma.
