OIL TOWNS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17230, 9 April 1930, Page 9

OIL TOWNS

RISE & FALL WITH YIELD TEXAS SITUATION TYPICAL SAN ANGELO (Tex.). Jan. 14. Boom oil towns, shipped together with a speed that rivals even the sudden access of the gushers that arc the only reason for their existence, are. dotting the plains of west Texas where towns have never before penetrated the vast sweeps of the great ranches. Often these young cities fade into nothingness as a gusher fails; occasionally they prosper, lose the riotous aspect of "their early days, and continue, as permanent and respectable communities. Twenty-five of them exist to-day in Texas alone. Clusters of frame shacks and tents, little, paving and few conveniences mark the beginnings of the oil field settlements. They are populated fey men who prefer the excitement and adventure of the "oil frontier" to the more staid conventionality of "civilisation," with its >strcets and skyscrapers, luncheon clubs, and family histories. These towns have no past, and their entire future is staked on an oil well that may go on indefinitely or may end ingloriously as a producer of sulphur water. LOTS LAID OUT QUICKLY. Optimistic promoters have had towns laid out and lots for sale within 24 hours after the discovery well has shot its oil over the derrick and caused intense excitement in a locality accustomed only to tho silence of the great open spaces. If the boom fails, the small shacks are loaded on five-ton trucks and carried to a new location that is showing some promise of success. If it succeeds, tho shacks are followed by brickbuildings, churches, schools, gas and electricity. One never knows which path a town will follow. West Texas, where tho newest oil fields are being established, is a big country, giving an impression of even greater immensity through the fact that one can travel for 60 or 70 miles without seeing a. house—nothing but sheep and cattle and an occasional windmill. Ranches of 100,000 acres are not uncommon. It is in such a setting that oil is found —and a town springs up, tho rush and fervor overcoming the loneliness of the environment. There are two-room "apartment houses." probably the most popular quarters: larger buildings in which cots are installed and sleeping room sold at 50 cents a night; restaurants in small shacks or tents. BAKERSFIELD'S FAST RECORD. Tho record for tho building of such a town is credited to Bakersficld (Cal.), which achieved a population of 600 in 30 days. Before the 'boom, the site was in"the heart of a 100.000-acre ranch, hidden by rock-capped hills, in a country of harsh outline. Although these oil communities are new, there is very little new lumber in them. Practically everything is moved across country from some earlier boom town th'sX has seen its bubble burst. Tho total population of theso 25 towns has been placed at 50,000, with Wink and McCanev the largest. Wink, located near the Mexican border, in a country of Sahara-like sand that made travelling almost- impossible before hard roads were built, has also, been one of the most spectacular. It was laid off after the general pattern of Washington, D. 0., and attracted 15,000 persons in one year, 'but tho population has declined to 6000, with the exodus of the pioneers to the newer towns of Lea, Hobbs, New Hobb, Skcen, and others. SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES BUILT. But before the boom passed, the town had acquired a railroad. 30 miles of hard road in tho county, two fine school buildings and a new courthouse. Electric lights had been wired all over (lie county, and gas piped to the town. Little evidence was left of the time, just before the coming of the oil men, when the voting population of the entire county was just 23. Crane City, with its mile-long main street, is another of the boom towns that has survived. It now has a courthouse, school, and church. Texon, entirely controlled by a largo oil company, is called the model community of them all, with substantial buildings and flowers, trees and shrubbery where once there was any sagebrush and cactus. Texon'a labor turnover is placed at less than 5 per cent annually, a remarkably low figure for an oil town. When ono boom town gradually fades away, West Texans are not 'discouraged, for there is always anoAher one, with an even brighter promise of wealth and prosperity, just around the corner.