U.S. Dept. of the Interior
Boundary Treaties
Land Information Office
National Center
Resston VA Upon the conclusion of the Mexican War in 1848,
the northern and western boundaries of Texas had not been settled with Mexico. NoMan's
Land is the Neutral Strip with metes and bounds as follows:One half degree south of the
37th parallel latitude and three degrees east and west of the East 103rd degree longitude,
a rectangle of land bordered by Kansas on the north, Texas panhandle on the south, New
Mexico on the west and the Ok. Cherokee Strip on the east.
It was stipulated in the treaty with Mexico that this zone should be
"neutral" forever. At the author's writing in 1961, Mexico had never
relinquished her rights under this treaty, so Oklahoma has no claim on this strip of land
because the United States had no legal right to cede it to the State of Oklahoma, it is
today Mexican territory, as decided by a frontiersman and cohort of Kit Carson and the
first sheriff of southeast Colorado who protected the Santa Fe Trail from 1855 to 1870.
The treaty insured by the United States Government
guaranteed the Mexicans safe passage so they might trade with the Plains Indians which was
until the turn of the 1900's, when the land rush opened the eastern portion of Oklahoma in
1906 and statehood soon followed, this did not include the Panhandle, only from Woodward
east, this has always been No Man's Land, when did Oklahoma acquire this stretch
legitimately? Ever,? Was the Mexican Treaty thrown into the vast wasteland and squatters
took over?
If no one owns it, it is Mexican by birth, if it is not
Oklahoma, it is Mexihoma, Congress passed the bill in 1853 to establish the above boundary
lines, agitation over slavery induced Congress to pay Texas ten million dollars to
maintain peace with Mexico and allocating the Neutral Strip as "Public Lands.