Daily Kennebec journal., 1922-04-06
Oklahoma Oil Towns
Have Phenomenal
Mushroom Growth

Oklahoma City, Okla, April s.
Like mushrooms that spring up over
night, Oklahoma's oil towns have
pushed their way into existence from
the barren prairie or the rock -strewn
hillside.
In the wake of the 'wildcatter,"
the lease sale and the inevitable der
rick, these towns have reached their
growth in Il twinkling and flourshcd
on the golden pot of ,ol found at the
end of the rainbow. With their un-
painted buildings of flimsy structure,
these ophemeral villages blazon the
trail of the oil scout who has crossed
hill and dale in search of the under
ground treasures of petroleum.
The latest addition to Oklahoma's
oil towns is Shidlcr. A few months
ago its site was known only as the
southwest quarter of section 2s, in
Usage county. But that was before
the Usage lease sale held in Pawhus-
ka last December, when oil compa
nics and promoters paid $4,000, 900 for
leases on Indian lands. Then drill
ing began, and what had been barren
plain, on the morrow was the site of
a bustlins town.
Shidlcr has a school house. like
towns of more sober growth. It was
built from funds donated by lumber
companies when n school census re-
: Nealed that AZ children in the village
cravcd chance at the Three RS"
| Then, too, Shidler is a railroad ter
minus. for the 12-mle line of steel
from Foraker comes to an abrupt end
IN this il-made village. And it has
It's romance. Seven months before
! Shidler sprang from the prairie, T. A.
Gale, 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
| Nhiz- banC-a word familiar to tho
doughboy who fought mud and Ger
mans in trenches in F'rance--was the
oil town sensation before Shidler
! popped into the world 1t, too, is
| located in the Usage Indian country
/ and startled the natives with its sud :
/ den growth and open violation of
! gambling and prohibitory statutes. A
| laW-abiding element in the county.
| however, started vice crusade
| which ended in the ousting OF the
sheriff, after trial at the county scat
! OF Pawhuska, and now Whiz- bang is
| tanned. The original owner of the
town-site was Miss Eileen De Noya,
| l9-year- old French Indian girl. Only
recently Miss De Noya sold her
| holdings and the town dropped its
wartime cognomen and adopted the
| more prosaic De Noya.
| Then there are the oil towns OF
| other years. which have thrivsd on
the pools of crude tapped by the
drillers and grown into respectable
| incorporated towns with stable gov
ernments, banks, schools, churches
Among these, which were brought
| into the world by the discovery OF
oil. are Healdton. Wilson, Cushing
| Harber, Shamrock, Yale, Boynton
Slick and Beggs.
| The modern city of Tulsa is pri-
marly an oil town, although few
are the derricks that can be seer
from the roofs of its skyserapers
When the Red Fork oil field
! was discovered in 1901, Tulsa
was struggling village. The
boom was absorbed by the towns OF
Red Fork and Sapulpa, which passed
Tulsa in population. ga year later
| however, when the Glenn pool was
opened up. it was Tulsa that bene-
fitted. 1t was the only nearby town