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Oil
Discover in Burkburnett, Texas A public sale of lots in the original townsite of Burkburnett was advertised for April, 1907. The First National Bank, with J. G. Hardin, President, the Four Sixes (6666) Ranch, and the Star, the only newspaper, were already established. Burkburnett moved along smoothly, showing steady growth. Then on the morning of July 24th, 1912, Schmoker No. 1 blew in. The well was located a mile and a half from town. It happened just before sunup during a severe electrical storm. J. R. Sullivan, a geologist, checked the well that morning and since telephone service was disrupted because of the storm, he rode a horse into town to notify the Corsicana Petroleum Company officials that the well was a producer. It was drilled at a depth of 1936 feet. It was destined to be the first in one of the world's largest producing pools. The well came in at 150 barrels per day, but settled down to 30 or 40 barrels per day. It pumped steadily until 1952 when it dwindled to one or two barrels per day and was plugged. Following the Schmoker discovery, Burkburnett experienced a slight oil boom with several locations along the western edge of the town. Wells were brought into production but were too small to spark a boom. During the months of May and June, 1918, S. L. Fowler undertook to organize a company and put down a deep test well near his home in the north part of town. A company was formed with a capital stock of $12,000 for the purpose of drilling the well. Shortly after the stock was sold, a lofty wooden derrick was erected, and sounds of the drilling rig were heard. Deep oil in the western part of town was found around 1600 feet. It was decided to drill deeper and oil was found at 1734 feet. When an attempt was made to bail out the well, it showed tremendous gas pressure. Although the hole was filled to the top with mud, the oil and gas began to blow out the top. Oil was allowed to flow through the small opening at the head of the casing. It was feared that if shut in entirely, the well might be seriously or permanently damaged. A pipeline was hurriedly laid to connect the the Magnolia line south of town. Following this discovery, Burkburnett gained 500 population in just a few days. These were mostly oil field workers. The news of the boom spread rapidly. Trains began leaving Fort Worth everyday for Burkburnett. The passenger cars were overflowing. When these people arrived in Burkburnett there were no hotel or rooming house accommodations. People slept on porches, in churches, cardboard boxes, and any place for shelter. Soon there was a derrick on every lot and seldom a dry hole was drilled. With gas escaping everywhere, gas flares burning and steam boilers roaring, it remains a mystery what kept the whole town from exploding. By 1921 the oil boom was simmering down. Practically every location had been drilled and hundreds of wells were pumping in the city limits. Stringtown, a community southwest of Burkburnett, grew as the oil industry spread. The rolling hills were covered with derricks, dwellings, and businesses. As oil was depleted, the community dwindled. The Corsicana Petroleum Company became the Magnolia Oil Company, and later in the '50's became Mobil Oil Company. Bridgetown, nine miles northwest of Burkburnett, was the most notorious oil town in North Texas. There was a twenty room hotel overlooking the banks of Red River. Fortune hunters swarmed the area. The Texas Rangers made numerous visits to close the dance halls and tried to control the bootlegging. On the riverbed down the hill from town was another two story hotel, cafe, more boxcar houses, tin buildings, and bath houses. There remains a skeleton of the pile bridge that crossed the river into Oklahoma. The bridge was ten feet wide and upwards of 1100 feet long. It was built by the government during the boom as a development expense, divided among the owners of the riverbed well operators. The bridge and many producing wells were destroyed by the flood in May, 1935. Texas and Oklahoma almost went to war over the boundary land. The Federal government took over the riverbottom producing wells and all were in receivership until the Supreme Court could make a ruling and appoint a commission. An uncle of Franklin D. Roosevelt was appointed as the Receiver in the Red River land dispute. The Bridgetown post office closed in 1935. In the last four years, some wells have been drilled in the river bottom and are producing. Speculation is that this new oil may be due to new channels opened by the waterflooding program in the late '50's. During the higher prices of oil in the '70's, calls came from distant states inquiring about stock certificates found in grandmother's trunk. One Burkburnett resident was called several times. He listened to the name of the oil company listed and the date, and he knew that the stock had been purchased during the Boom. The caller was told that about all that could be done with the stock certificates would be to use them for wallpaper. Stocks were made to look very authentic with company name and gold seal and with the necessary signatures. Few such oil companies ever existed. The streets were crowded with stockholders and all such transactions were cash sales. There are no longer any boomtime wells producing in the city limits of Burkburnett. The last well was plugged in the '60's and was located behind the First National Bank. Nine wells that were drilled in 1918 and 1919 are still producing a barrel or two per day on the Daniel's Lease. A number of producing wells can be seen on the Truck Route around Burkburnett. Most of these were drilled in the late sixties or early seventies. By 1919, the townsite oil was growing less. Wells were being drilled on the adjoining farms and the investors and oil workers were eager for more. On the 530 acre farm of Bob Waggoner on April 29, 1919, the 2,000 barrel Burk-Waggoner well blew in and on the following day the Golden Cycle well arrived. Then the wild, wild days began. It was open season on drilling; as close as they could get and as many derricks as they could afford. There were no restrictions. Accidents were frequent. There were very few safety devices; the crews were "green" or careless in their hurry. The wind blew down the derricks, many times hurriedly erected without guy wires. The need of the men to be near their work resulted in many tents being near the wells; then shacks, dance halls, drinking places, and small towns appeared. And the waste was terrible. The wells came in without tanks to catch the oil. Boilers exploded and fires were frequent. Newtown was wiped out three times. One man kept seven railroad cars, paying "demurrage" fees just for his dance hall "girls." Bridgetown had a dance house at one end of the street and a church at the other. By day the area looked like a burnt cut forest; by night a fairyland, with the lights on top and strung along the derricks. It was only after the Northwestern Extension came in that crime became a major factor - the drifters, the crooks, the dance hall people, the liquor men, all wanting to make money the easy way, even the ones who would be paid for poor work. The law enforcement people, town and county, aided by some Texas Rangers did a good job; but it was just too difficult and there was too much. Outlying well crews were attacked, bodies were found in slush pits (later bones); there was shooting and fights in dance halls, and there was theft of equipment of all sizes, even a house and derricks. Tapping of pipelines was frequent, for oil itself or to show suckers. Crooked promoters found men ready to take risks. Money was easy to come by and everybody had it, so they were willing to take a chance. Stock could be printed and sold, unvouched for, just walking down the street or at the curb on Ohio Street in Wichita Falls. When tables were ordered off sidewalks, oil stock exchanges were established, three on one block on Ohio. Crowds came there to see stock listings. There was no control. Mail fraud could be prosecuted by federal authorities. For example, on April 20, 1923, ninety-two oil promoters were indicted by a federal grand jury in Fort Worth. Forty-three made bonds of from $5,000 to $40,000. The most famous in this area was Frederick A. Cook, an authentic polar explorer, who claimed to have reached the North Pole before Admiral Peary, which later was proven to be a lie. He had had shady operations in the Ranger field before. He was tried for fraud in 1925, fined $12,000 and given a fourteen year and nine month sentence to Leavenworth. Cook was given a presidential pardon in 1940.
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