Northwest Extension Oilfield
Burkburnett, Wichita County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Oil exploration and production in this area was minimal until April 17, 1919, when the Bob Waggoner Well No. 1 blew in at 4,800 barrels per day. It was the first well in what became known as the Northwest Extension Oilfield, comprised of approximately 27 square miles on the former S. Burk Burnett Wild Horse Ranch. R.M. "Bob" Waggoner's well led to a boom, and the area was suddenly thick with oil derricks. The hastily organized tent cities of Thrift, Springtown, Morgan City, Waggoner City, Bridgetown and Bradley's Corner supported the industry. Today, sparsely sited pump jacks continue to draw oil, but in far smaller quantities than the early wells of Wichita County. (2006)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
The strike captures the wildcatting oil booms that reshaped early-20th-century Texas, minting instant boomtowns and fueling the state's rise as an energy power.
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Related people
- · R.M. "Bob" Waggoner
- · S. Burk Burnett
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First Methodist Church of Burkburnett
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Methodists in the young oil town of Burkburnett first worshipped in a one-room building that doubled as school and social hall. Led by former schoolteacher "Mother Majors" and circuit rider Frank McGehee, they held their first service in a new frame sanctuary in 1908. The congregation boomed with the 1918 oil strike and again as Sheppard Air Force Base expanded after World War II, building a brick sanctuary in 1925.
Central Baptist Church
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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.
O'Donohoe, John F.
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John F. O'Donohoe arrived in Wichita Falls in 1909 as a scout for the Guffey Petroleum Company — later Gulf Oil — and, working without a surveyor, staked the firm's first Clay County lease in what became the Petrolia Oilfield. Over the following decades the wildcatter organized a string of petroleum companies, managed a Chamber of Commerce development firm, and married into the family of oilman Frank Kell. Active in banking and civic life, he chaired the board of what is now Midwestern State University.
Wichita County Water Improvement District No. 2
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Around 1900, Wichita Falls booster Joseph Kemp began dreaming of turning the dry country around the city into irrigated farmland, and by 1914 he and brother-in-law Frank Kell had platted irrigation subdivisions. Water Improvement Districts formed in 1919 and 1920, and between 1921 and 1924 Lake Kemp and Lake Diversion rose to supply a gravity irrigation system, municipal water, and flood control on the Wichita River. Though the hoped-for farm economy never eclipsed oil, District No. 2 still delivers water and tames floods today.