On September 16, 1893, 15,000 land-hungry whites gathered at Caldwell to make the run into the Cherokee Outlet to the south. Caldwell was one of nine places where more than 100,000 potential settlers waited for cavalry soldiers' gunshots to begin the last land rush in the United States. The Outlet, commonly but incorrectly called the Strip, contained 6,000,000 acres and roughly lay between Caldwell, Stillwater, and the Oklahoma Panhandle. Originally set aside for Indians in 1835, the Outlet went unused, and white cattlemen grazed Texas longhorn cattle across it on the way to eastern markets. Under heavy pressure from white land squatters known as boomers, and without help from federal authorities to protect their property, the Indians reluctantly began negotiations with Washington in 1889. The Cherokees sold the Outlet to the government in 1891 for $8.5 million, but when Congress finally appropriated the monies in 1893, the Indians were shorted $200,000.