Maps

$350

Three maps advertising land for sale in Pushmataha County, Oklahoma.These claims, however, were likely fraudulent. The McAlester Real Estate Exchange was established soon after Oklahoma gained statehood by Roy Van Tress, who promised to obtain for his customers the rights to Indian Lands being sold by the federal government sight-unseen and without requirements of occupation or homesteading. Salesmen of the McAlester Real Estate Exchange offered land that they had no right to sell or was devoid of the bounty of natural resources and rich soil promised in the adverting maps. In 1919 Van Tress was convicted of fraud. These ephemeral maps are important examples of 19th century land fraud that was happening across the country.