Bridgetown
Burkburnett, Wichita County, Texas
Marker Inscription
When the northwest extension of the Burkburnett oil field opened in 1919, prospectors thronged this area. Bridgetown sprang up at the Texas end of a mile-long Red River toll bridge built for oil field traffic. It became the largest and wealthiest of 12 communities that mushroomed in this area during rivalry among major oil companies and independent producers. Lease values rose from $10 to $20,000 an acre. A city of tents, shanties and a few substantial structures, Bridgetown had a long main street with a Mission church at one end and a saloon at the other. Its post office opened July 15, 1920. The population in the early 1920s was estimated at 3,500 to 10,000. Litigation over riverbed oil rights caused the U.S. Supreme Court to station a receiver in the town. He was Frederick A. Delano, uncle of future president Franklin D. Roosevelt. With aid from Texas Rangers, Delano and other leaders invoked law and order. In a few years oil yields diminished, and the jail, theaters, dance halls, and gambling houses vanished. By 1929 only 100 inhabitants remained. By 1931 the bridge was down, the post office closed in 1935. Afterward the site of the makeshift oil "capital" reverted to range and agricultural uses. (1977)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When the Burkburnett oil field pushed northwest in 1919, Bridgetown erupted at the Texas end of a mile-long toll bridge over the Red River, becoming the wealthiest of a dozen boom camps as lease values soared from $10 to $20,000 an acre. This tent-and-shanty city of thousands even drew the U.S. Supreme Court to station a receiver—Frederick A. Delano, uncle of future president Franklin D. Roosevelt—to settle riverbed oil disputes with help from the Texas Rangers. As the oil ran thin the town collapsed, and by 1935 the post office had closed and the land returned to range.
Why it matters
Bridgetown is a vivid emblem of the American oil rush, where overnight fortunes, lawlessness, and legal wrangling produced a boomtown that vanished almost as fast as it appeared.
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Related people
- · Frederick A. Delano
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Receiver Bridge
Burkburnett, TX
When the Burkburnett oil boom sent drillers into the bed of the meandering Red River around 1920, it reignited an old question: exactly where did Texas end and Oklahoma begin? The U.S. Supreme Court placed the disputed land under federal control, naming Frederick A. Delano — uncle of future president Franklin Delano Roosevelt — as receiver. To reach the derricks he ordered a one-lane wooden bridge built to midstream; the boundary was fixed at the river's south bank in 1923, and a 1935 flood later wrecked the span.
Thrift
Burkburnett vicinity, TX
Springing up around 1919 amid the northwestern reaches of the Burkburnett oil boom, the tent town of "Newtown" or "Thrift" briefly boasted the area's only bank. Fire plagued the flimsy settlement — a 1920 blaze sparked by lightning striking an oil tank killed two and destroyed much of the town — and as the boom faded its population dwindled until, today, every building is gone.
Northwest Extension Oilfield
Burkburnett, TX
Oil drew little attention here until April 17, 1919, when the Bob Waggoner Well No. 1 blew in at 4,800 barrels a day, opening the Northwest Extension Oilfield on the former Burk Burnett ranch. A frenzy of derricks followed, and hastily built tent cities—Thrift, Springtown, Waggoner City, and others—sprang up to serve the boom. Today only scattered pump jacks work the field that once roared.
Charley Lee Coe
Burkburnett, TX
Charley Lee Coe was an oil-field driller in the Burkburnett boom country, living with his wife and three children in early 1923. On a morning he had planned to take his daughter to the county fair, he saw a neighbor's house ablaze and pushed through the smoke to reach two small boys trapped in a bedroom. One child was pulled to safety through a knocked-out door panel, but the flames overtook Coe and the younger boy. The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission awarded him a posthumous Gold Medal and a pension for his family.