The Union daily times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1918-current, 1922-04-12
Towns Spring up
Like Mushrooms

Oklahoma City, Okla, April s.
Like mushrooms that spring up over
night, Oklahoma's oil towns have
pushed their way into existence from
the barrel prairie or the rock-strewn
hillside.
In the wake Of the "wildcatter," the
lease sale and the inevitable derrick,
these towns have reached their growth
in a twinkling and fourished on the
golden pot of oil found at the end of
the rainbow. With their unpainted
buildings of flimsy structure, these
ephemeral villages blazon the trail of
the oil scout who has crossed hill and
dale in search of the underground
treasures of petroleum.
The latest addition to Oklahomas
oil towns is Shidler. A few months
ago its site was known only as the
southwest quarter of section %, in
Usage county. But that was before
| the Usage lease sale held in Pawhuska
| last December, when oil companies
and promoters paid $S,000,0O0 for
| iNeSSo oii 1HcH uEllli1R
Logan, and what had been barren
| plain, on the morrow was the site of a
bustling town.
Shidler has a school house, like
towns of more sober growth. 1t was
built from funds donated by lumber
companies when school census re-
vealed that AZ children in the village
chaved chance at the "Three RS"
| Then, too, Shidler is a railroad termi-
nus, for the 12-mile line of steel from
Foraker comes to an abrupt end in
this oil-made village. And it has its
romance. Seven months before Shid-
Ter sprang from the prairie, 7. A.
Gale, a young engineer, married an
Usage Indian girl, the owner of many
acres of open land, the site of the
future village. Now the Gales live in
town, along with hundreds of other
| folk.
WhlZ-bang "a word familiar to the
doughboy who fought mud and Ger
| mans in trenches in France-was the
oil town sensation before Shidler
popped into the world. 1t, too, is To-
Gated in the Usage Indian country and
| startled the natives with it's sudden
growth and open vilation of gambling
and prohibitory statues. A law-abid-
ing element in the county, however.
started vice-crusade which ended in
the ousting Of the sheriff, after trial
at the county seat of Pawhuska, and
now WhiZ-bang is tanned. The original
owner of the town-site was Miss Eli
leen De Noya, 19-year- French In
dian girl. Only recently, Miss De Noya
sold her holdings and the town drop
Ped its wartime cognomen and adopt
ed the more prosaic De Noya.
Then there are the oil towns of
other years, which have thrived on
the pools of crude tapped by the drill
ers and grown into respectable, incor-
porated towns with stable govern
ments, banks, schools, churches.
Among these, which were brought into
the world by the discovery of oil, are
Healdton, Wilson, Gushing, CARRIER,
Shamrock, Yale, Boynton, Slick and
Beggs.
The modern city of Tulsa is pri-
marily an oil town, although few are
the derricks that can be seen from the
roofs of its skyscrapers. When the
Red Fork oil fields was discovered in
1901, Tulsa was a struggling village
The boom was absorbed by the towns
Of Red Fork and Sapulpa, which
passed Tulsa in population. A year
later, however, when the Glenn pool
was opened up, it was Tulsa that ben
Gifted. 1t was the only nearby town
where office room was procurable and
there the oil men focked to establish
their headquarters. Now the city
claims a population of 50, 900 and be-
cause of its rapid growth is known as
..'Tbn Mari. Titxy