The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1915-06-06

had never dreamed OF the time when
an S0-foot derrick would take the
place of his corn crib in the back
yard, that network OF pipe lines
would make unclean the creek ford
where his few cows and horses were
| wont TO drink, or that dozens of big
steel tanks would occupy the field
where he had planted cotton and corn
for so many years. 1t was all too
much for the homesteader and the
tenant, and as a rule they have yield
ed to the inevitable. Sometimes the
old log cabin becomes the headquar-
ters of the lease foreman, more fire.
quently it houses a bunch of team
sters or "skinners," once in a while
there is one converted into garage,
and there are instances too, where
these old homesteads are now used
instead to shelter the horses and
mules that form the motive power in
the oil field
And each one of these old log cab.
ins has its history. This was in the
pathway of the early day explorer
and Of the pioneer, and later it be-
came the rendezvous of the outlaw
and renegade. There is not a house
in all these hills that could not tell
of the Daltons and the Doolins, of
Bitter Creek and Little Dick, OF Belle
Starr and Miss Captain, of Creeks
and Pawnees and Sac and Fox If
these old houses could but talk, what
a remarkable history could be writ
! ten,
1t was to this section that the Doc
| Inns came after their battle with the
officers at Ingalls,; Quantrell and his
men were in this section during the
civil war; the James boys knew of
these hills as safe hiding place;
the Daltons wWe in camp here prior
| to pulling off their last bank robbery
in Coffeyville; Bill Cook and Chero-
kee Bill and their comrades were at
home in many of these cabins: the
| Jennings gang camped along the Gin.
arron here; and the later day bands,
those that followed Bert Casey, Ben
Cravens and Henry Starr-all of them
came to this section when they would
evade the officers Many have been
the battles in these hills; men have
disappeared here, never to be heard
Of again; it was wild section even
after old Oklahoma Territory had
reached its twentieth birthday.
Now, however, it is a section of
derricks and pipe lines, of flowing
wells and big gassers, of tank farms
and power stations--where oil is su.
preme, and where all men have gone
mad in the gamble that has here
reached its greatest dimensions. Even
the creeks have turned to OIL Spring
fed, the streams We're formerly among
the purest in water supply in the
state; today they are murlly and black,
flowing with oil that reaches even as
far east as the Mississippi. discoor-
ing the surface of the Father OF
Waters.
And what of the men who built
and lived in these cabins? As
rule, of course, they We're tenants,
although frequently the houses were
occupied by the squaw men who
knew better than the Indian the value
of the land from an agricultural stand
point and was willing to settle down
here with his Indian wife and rear
his family. In many instances, the
landowners have become wealthy
through their oil royalty; others have
sold their acres outright, frequently
receiving sums that a year ago would
have been considered fabulous The
farm tenant has turned oil field
worker, skinner, tank builder or roust-
about His wife, perhaps, runs
boarding camp; his children are
growing up in the oil atmosphere,
and wilr-no doubt follow the oil fields
during the remainder of their lives.
The old log cabins look out of
place now amid all this increasing
business. They seem to stand aloof,
a part of another world entirely. !
They may be found on the outskirts
OF the towns that have sprung up
overnight, the cabins silent among
the trees, where formerly the silence !
was broken only by the children at !
play Now the never ceasing din |
can not be avoided Hammer and |
saw, clanking steel, the roar of the
gas, the telling of trees, the cursing
of the "skinners,' the buzz of the
automobile-everywhere racket. noise,
bedlam.
Greatly Benefited by Chamberlain's