Oklahoma's Oil Boom Times
The impact oil discovery in Oklahoma.
 

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  • Renew
    It begin when,
       Along a Caney river bend,
       The Nellie Johnstone came in.
    
    The Caney Nellie's achy belly,
       Gushed some smelly,
       Black mineral jelly.
    
    The first spud, that wasn't a dud,
       Showed that black flood,
       Others started to spud.
    
    Brought many a wildcatter,
       Oil is all that did matter,
       Peaceful life did shatter.
    
    Vast riches to reap,
       Where oil had long been asleep,
       In sands hidden deep.
    	 
    Took many spuds,
       Kissing a lot of duds,
       To finally get rich black floods.
    
    Centuries held oil,
       Would spring like a coil,
       Boil from the soil.
    
    With each new find a gush,
       Money became flush,
       More people would rush.
    
    As oil would seep,
       From the ground deep,
       Prices turned mighty steep.
    
    So many pursued,
       So much crude spewed,
       So many a rich dude.
    
    That drew the shrewd,
       Men who only knew rude,
       Willing to cheat and feud. 
    	 
    Ended many financial woe,
       In the dough, no more debts to owe,
       To the city they would go.
    
    As a new find would blow,
       Overnight a town would grow,
       A Forrest of derricks show.
    
    Came winners, losers and sinners,
       Some winners, turned sinners,
       Most losers, turned sinners.
    
    Every street a mud hole,
       Short on law patrol,
       Towns turned a hell hole.
    	 
    Much money to reap,
       Yet no place to sleep,
       Except in their old heap.
    
    Drink from shared pail water,
       Bath in dirty water,
       No place for a daughter.
    
    A life hard and crude,
       Lonely men in a wild mood,
       Living a life of feud and lewd.
    
    Whiskey bottles,
       Parlor and Brothels,
       The only throttles.
    
    Came people of bad mood,
       People who came to intrude,
       To profit from that black crude.
    	 
    Hard changes ensured,
       Where oil rigs protrude,
       A scenic landscape denude.
    
    There was found lots of bad blood
       Working the mud,
       Among the peaceful Redbud.
    
    Men of a new breed,
       A breed of greed,
       Came to steal others' deed.
    
    At a place called Cromwell,
       They found many a good oil well,
       But, tnere the law did not dwell.
    	 
    Thousands came to dwell,
       With no law saloons and brothels did swell,
       Cromwell became a wicked hell.
    
    The Governor sent law to try a spell,
       But, with a bullet from a shell,
       That law fell.
    
    An oil fire started at a well,
       Cross the field to Cromwell,
       Turned a burning hell.
    
    To big for water to drown,
       Burned the town down,
       All left for another oil town
    
    In twenty-six the Greater Seminole did show,
       Greater Seminole the world's largest flow,
       In 1930 the "Wild Mary Sudik" did blow.
    
    Such a glut a barrel only worth a dime,
       Ending the good time,
       For a long, long time.
    	 
    Oil companies, turned their tails,
       Left the pollution of spills and smells,
       Leaving only stories to tell, stories that tell well.
    

    Note: The oil glut was one of three major devastating economic events that occurred at roughly the same time. Others were the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Oklahoma and some surrounding areas fell victim to all three simultaneously.




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