DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just the voice givin' it wings. You're rolling through Burkburnett, Wichita County — one of the most famous towns in all of Texas, and the marker wants you to know that right up front, no apologies. So let's go back to where the story starts.
The year is 1905. President Theodore Roosevelt himself comes out to this part of Texas for a wolf hunt with a rancher by the name of Burk Burnett. And when it came time to name the post office, Roosevelt put in the request personally — and the name Burkburnett is what came out of that.
Two years later, in 1907, a man named Joseph A. Kemp and another named Frank Kell — surveyors and promoters of the Wichita Falls and Northwestern Railroad — laid out the townsite. Things were taking shape out here on the Texas plains.
Then in 1912, a fellow named Chris Schmoker drilled what the marker calls the first oil discovery — Schmoker No. 1. Now that was just the opening act. Because what happened on July 29, 1918, was something else entirely.
A company formed by S. L. Fowler, his brother, W.
D. Cline, and J. I.
Staley brought in a gusher on the Fowler farm — about a mile from right here — and it came in at twenty-two hundred barrels. Twenty-two hundred. In three months, two hundred wells had been completed inside the Burkburnett townsite alone.
A forest of derricks, the marker says, and you can just picture it — iron towers shoulder to shoulder where there used to be nothing but sky. Money and oil flowed freely. One bank, capitalized at twenty-five thousand dollars, was pulling in ten thousand dollars a month from a single well drilled right at its back door.
The town's population went from fifteen hundred to fifteen thousand in a single year. And the boom kept spreading — out to properties of the Burk-Waggoner Company, and by Kemp-Munger-Allen operations to the southwest. The whole world eventually found out about Burkburnett in 1941, when a movie called Boomtown hit the screen, filmed from a popular story entitled Lady Comes to Burkburnett.
Hollywood, meet the Texas oil patch. Today the economy runs on agriculture and oil, and Sheppard Air Force Base stands as an important neighbor. But you don't get a nickname like Boomtown USA without earning it — one gusher, one wild summer, and a whole town that went from fifteen hundred souls to fifteen thousand before anybody had time to think twice about it.
What the marker says
One of the most famous Texas towns. Name was given to post office at request of President T. R. Roosevelt after his 1905 wolf hunt with rancher Burk Burnett in this area. Townsite was laid out in 1907 by Joseph A. Kemp and Frank Kell, surveyors and promoters of Wichita Falls and Northwestern Railroad. First oil discovery was Chris Schmoker No. 1, in 1912. A 2200-barrel gusher was brought in on S. L. Fowler farm about a mile from this site, July 29, 1918, by a company formed by Fowler, his brother, W. D. Cline and J. I. Staley. In 3 months 200 wells had been completed in Burkburnett townsite -- a forest of derricks. Money and oil flowed freely. A bank capitalized at $25,000, got monthly revenue of $10,000 from a well drilled at its back door. The town's population jumped from 1500 to 15,000 in a year. Boom area was extended by finds on properties of Burk-Waggoner Company and by Kemp-Munger-Allen operations to the southwest. Town was made world famous in 1941 by the movie "Boomtown", filmed from a popular story entitled "Lady comes to Burkburnett". Economy is dependent on agriculture and oil. An important neighbor is Sheppard Air Force Base. (1966)