Northwest Extension Oilfield

By April 1919 closely spaced wells were already draining the Burkburnett Townsite pool, and operators stepped out onto nearby farms. The Northwest Extension discovery, 3.5 miles west of the townsite, came from the Burkburnett-Waggoner Oil Company, organized by Clois Green, a bank clerk from Vernon, and drew from Cisco sand at about 1,662 to 1,692 feet. The boom moved west with it, and crowds of newcomers packed every public place. In October 1921 Humble finished an 1,800-barrel refinery near Burkburnett, but it lost money after 1924 and was abandoned in 1927 for lack of crude.

What the plaque says

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)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• World's Littlest Skyscraper — 15 mi
  A four-story brick tower in downtown Wichita Falls, 40 feet tall and 10 feet wide, the leftover of a 1919 oil-boom office deal in which, the story goes, investors misread inches as feet.
• Kell House Museum — 15 mi
  The 1909 Classic Revival house of Frank Kell, the miller and railroad builder who helped make Wichita Falls a city, shown by guided tour with its family furniture still in place.
• Lake Arrowhead State Park — 27 mi
  A prairie park on the north shore of the Wichita Falls water-supply lake, which drowned the town of Halsell in 1965-66, with mesquite campsites, a lighted pier and more than 200 bird species.
• Clay County 1890 Jail Museum — 32 mi
  Henrietta's 1890 stone jail a block from the domed courthouse, now the county museum, with its original cells, a gallows that was never used and the sheriff's family quarters.

More markers nearby

• Thrift — steps away
• Burnett Horse Ranch — 1.0 mi
• Bridgetown — 2.5 mi
• Simon Peter Hawkins — 2.6 mi