When Kiowa-Comanche-Apache lands in Oklahoma opened to white settlement in 1901, 505,000 acres were reserved as grazing lands, and this area became known as Big Pasture. Most of the region was leased for cattle ranching, but because of the soil’s fertility, white people sought to open Big Pasture to settlement and farming. Congress passed an act, signed by President Theodore Roosevelt on June 5, 1906, providing for that opening. Beginning December 10, 1906, farm lands and town lots were sold to the highest bidders on a sealed bid basis, and bids were opened starting March 15, 1907. It was the last big land opening in Oklahoma. Within one year, 2,337 families were living in the Big Pasture area. Eschiti and Kell, competing towns, combined in 1908 to found Grandfield. Only a few miles from here, in April 1905, a famous wolf hunt led by President Theodore Roosevelt was held. In 1852, Captain R. B. Marcy and troops, with Lt. George B. McClellan second in command, passed a short distance north of this point on their way to find the source of the Red River.