The Cellar - August 7th, 2015: Boomtown

Up in the Texas panhandle, on the 6666 Ranch of S.B. Burnett they struck oil in 1921, but it turned out to be a poor quality well. They were probably looking for water. Years later three men, Willis, Trigg, and Lewis, built a $25,000 rotary drill rig that could put a six inch hole through solid rock. A big gamble but in 1926 it paid off, big time. This picture was taken in March, shortly after that strike.
http://cellar.org/2015/oil01.jpg

There's gold in them there wildcatters.

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Ace Borger and his business partner John R. Miller purchased a 240-acre (0.97 km2) townsite near the Canadian River in March 1926 after the discovery of oil in the vicinity. Within a few months time, the boomtown had swelled to a population of 45,000, most lured by sensational advertising and "black gold".

http://cellar.org/2015/oil02.jpg

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In October 1926, the city charter was adopted, and Miller was elected mayor. By this time the Panhandle & Santa Fe Railway had completed the spur line to Borger, a post office had opened, and a school district was established. The boomtown of Borger soon had steam-generated electricity, telephone service, a hotel, and a jail. Regionalist artist Thomas Hart Benton depicted this period of Borger in his large painting "Boomtown".

http://cellar.org/2015/boomtown.jpg
....................... Boomtown

After that, like so many gold camps and oil strikes, lots of single men with money attracted all sorts of vice, and Borger became a den of iniquity. It got so bad the Governor sent Texas Rangers and eventually troops. But it was still rough, for instance..

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Eventually Borger settled down, but not before town founder Ace Borger was shot and killed at the post office by Arthur Huey on August 31, 1934 (Huey was county treasurer and was irked at Ace Borger for not bailing him out of jail on an embezzlement charge. Huey shot Borger five times with a Colt .45 pistol, even pulling Borger's own pistol out of his clothing and shooting him again, along with others there in the post office).

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