Editing Alfalfa County, Oklahoma (section)

===Pre-statehood===
The treaties of 1828 and 1835 placed what would later become Alfalfa County within the [[Cherokee Outlet]], which was owned by the [[Cherokee Nation]]. Ranching became the primary economic activity from 1870 to 1890; cattle companies that belonged to the Cherokee Strip Live Stock Association leased grazing land from the Cherokee. Prominent rancher, [[Andrew Drumm Institute|Major Andrew Drumm]] operated the "U Ranch" here as early as 1870. Its headquarters were southeast of [[Driftwood, Oklahoma|Driftwood]] on the [[Medicine Lodge River|Medicine Lodge]] and [[Salt Fork of the Arkansas River|Salt Fork]] rivers.<ref name="EOHC-AlfalfaCo"/>

[[Image:Cherokee Outlet 1885.jpg|right|280px|thumb|The Cherokee Outlet (1885)]]
[[Image:Oklahoma Land Rush.jpg|right|280px|thumb|An Oklahoma Land Rush (1889)]]

[[Woods County, Oklahoma|Woods County]] was created in September 1893 at the same time as the opening of the Cherokee Outlet with the [[Land Run of 1893|Cherokee Strip Land Run]]. As population increased and Cherokee land titles were extinguished, the legislature authorized the creation of Alfalfa County in 1907, as part of statehood.<ref name="EOHC-AlfalfaCo"/>  The county was named after [[William H. Murray|William H. "Alfalfa Bill" Murray]], who served as the president of the [[Oklahoma Constitution]]al [[Convention (meeting)|Convention]] and would later be elected as the ninth [[governor of Oklahoma]].<ref name=EOHC-AlfalfaCo/><ref name="OPN"/><ref name="County Names">{{cite web|title=ORIGIN OF COUNTY NAMES IN OKLAHOMA, Vol. 2, No. 1, March 1924|url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/chronicles/v002/v002p075.html|website=Oklahoma Historical Society's Chronicles of Oklahoma|publisher=Oklahoma State University|access-date=May 9, 2016|page=75|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170814135738/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v002/v002p075.html|archive-date=August 14, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> He promoted creation of this county.