Land war rages in Oklahoma Panhandle

A land war as raucous as any Wild West movie is raging near the Oklahoma Panhandle. “They killed my dog,” said Samuel Parker, formerly of Phoenix and now living in Portland, Ore. Parker, 28, said angry locals also cut his fences, made threats, sabotaged his windmills and fired shots over the heads of ranch workers. It all started because Parker outbid everyone for the lease of more than 24,000 acres of state school lands in a part of Cimarron County where such lands had been leased by certain families for generations, he said. “Once we took over some of the leases, that’s when all the trouble started,” Parker said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. They sure think it’s Wyatt Earp or something.” Keith Kuhlman, director of real estate management for the Commissioners of the Land Office, said the state agency initially was excited by Parker’s willingness to pay premium amounts for lease land, but the family has done some things since then that have caused problems, such as allowing cattle to roam on the property of neighbors, allegedly overgrazing land, suing his agency and refusing to make lease payments after a controversial land swap...more