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The Irish side of my family arrived in Oklahoma during a late 1800s land run and homesteaded outside a small existing town that was the tribal agency for an Indian tribe relocated into Indian Territory. That homestead property is still in the family but never amounted to much. It did though have a small natural spring that allowed them to survive on the land those first few years.

Very few homesteads have survived intact as to their original boundaries as the climate is too dry for farming and larger land parcels are needed for ranching.

The only sizable farming compatible land is coincidentally about a mile away from that homestead and my great grandfather ended up owning a sizable portion of the rich bottomland adjacent to a small creek that joins into a larger creek just downstream of that farm's location.

The WPA took that good land via eminent domain in the 1930s to build a 600 acre lake and water works for the town water supply. So, the only good farm land within 20 miles has been under water since the lake filled.

Now, there is only a narrow strip of fertile land remaining along the side of the large creek and was really only useful for sustenance farming, nothing commercial.

There is one narrow strip of this creek bottoms amounting to 2 or 3 acres that lays between the railroad track and the large creek. It's been a community garden I think since the Territory years. Any town resident can get a plot assigned in the garden and my grand parents usually had a garden there. The community garden is still going strong.