Member-only story
You’re Telling Time Wrong
How our obsession with time is actually changing the way we live.
On April 22nd, in one day, a city was built. At that time, there was an area circling 300 miles of unclaimed territory. It had no defined owner, so people from all over were coming to make their rightful claim. The presiding government of the land decided this: that on April 22nd, everyone who wanted some parcel of this land would come stand at the invisible edge of the 300 mile circle and at 12p noon, the line would be broken and anyone and everyone could run into the territory and personally claim their land, up to 160 acres. Sounds like a pretty great set up for the average person looking to gain some land!
However, as expected, people quickly realized that there were a lot of problems within this absurd plan, the foremost amongst which was that the men and women around the circle had no way of knowing when it was exactly 12 o’clock noon for the land rush to begin. So people left early. Those on one side of the circle didn’t know the other side was running in. There are accounts of people actually dying as they fought and fled into the hope of this new land. By the end of the day, the city was outlined, order was abandoned, and chaos ensued.
Although this sounds almost unbelievable, this is the origin story for Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The land-rush plan was put in motion by the…
