Burkburnett ("Boomtown USA")
Burkburnett, Wichita County, Texas
Marker Inscription
One of the most famous Texas towns. Name was given to post office at request of President T. R. Roosevelt after his 1905 wolf hunt with rancher Burk Burnett in this area. Townsite was laid out in 1907 by Joseph A. Kemp and Frank Kell, surveyors and promoters of Wichita Falls and Northwestern Railroad. First oil discovery was Chris Schmoker No. 1, in 1912. A 2200-barrel gusher was brought in on S. L. Fowler farm about a mile from this site, July 29, 1918, by a company formed by Fowler, his brother, W. D. Cline and J. I. Staley. In 3 months 200 wells had been completed in Burkburnett townsite -- a forest of derricks. Money and oil flowed freely. A bank capitalized at $25,000, got monthly revenue of $10,000 from a well drilled at its back door. The town's population jumped from 1500 to 15,000 in a year. Boom area was extended by finds on properties of Burk-Waggoner Company and by Kemp-Munger-Allen operations to the southwest. Town was made world famous in 1941 by the movie "Boomtown", filmed from a popular story entitled "Lady comes to Burkburnett". Economy is dependent on agriculture and oil. An important neighbor is Sheppard Air Force Base. (1966)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Burkburnett got its name at the request of President Theodore Roosevelt after a 1905 wolf hunt with rancher Burk Burnett, and the townsite was laid out in 1907 along a new railroad. But it was oil that made it famous: after a 2,200-barrel gusher came in on the Fowler farm in July 1918, some 200 wells sprouted in the townsite within three months and the population leapt from 1,500 to 15,000 in a single year. The frenzy inspired the 1940 film "Boom Town," cementing the town's "Boomtown USA" legend.
Why it matters
Burkburnett captures the explosive, get-rich-quick culture of the early Texas oil booms that transformed the state's economy and helped power twentieth-century America.
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Related people
- · Theodore Roosevelt
- · Burk Burnett
- · Joseph A. Kemp
- · Frank Kell
- · S.L. Fowler
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
The Red River
Burkburnett, TX
Named for the red soil it carries, the Red River runs 1,360 miles and forms 440 miles of the Texas-Oklahoma line — once an international boundary set by the 1819 treaty with Spain dividing the United States from New Spain. It served as a Spanish-colonial gateway into Texas and drew steamer traffic and Captain Randolph Marcy's 1852 exploring expedition into Native-held lands upriver. The 1921 Burkburnett oil boom sparked a Texas–Oklahoma fight over the riverbed that the Supreme Court settled at the south bank.
Central Baptist Church
Burkburnett, TX
In 1924 fourteen people met at Bradley's Corner Community Center to organize a missionary Baptist church, soon relocating to the nearby oil boomtown of Thrift and building with donated lumber. As members moved into Burkburnett, the congregation carried its building into town in 1952 and, after further growth, renamed itself Central Baptist Church in 1961 to reflect its new role as a city church. It continues to serve the Burkburnett community.
Fowler Discovery Well
Burkburnett, TX
In 1918, cotton farmers Shields and Cassie Fowler were ready to abandon their drought-stricken land near Burkburnett until Cassie suggested drilling for oil instead. With help from family, friends, and local merchants, they sank a well near their hog pen, and on July 26 the Fowler Discovery Well blew in, gushing some 2,500 barrels a day. It tapped the enormous Townsite Pool and set off four years of frenzied boomtown growth, with nearly 3,000 wells and several refineries crowding the area.
First National Bank of Burkburnett
Burkburnett, TX
When the First National Bank opened its doors in May 1907, Burkburnett was still a modest North Texas farming and ranching town on land tied to the great cattleman S. B. Burnett, its namesake. Its founders read like a roster of the region's frontier commerce: townsite owner Joseph A. Kemp and merchant John G. Hardin, who would soon ride the discovery of oil into a fortune. Within a dozen years, the 1918 gusher would turn this sleepy county into the frenzied boomtown that inspired the film 'Boom Town.'