Back in the Day: Ladies Day in Boomtown
The women who trudged into the Burkburnett oil field for the 1919 Ladies Day seem oblivious to the oily muck and mud that filled Burkburnett in the second year of the oil boom set off by the Fowler No. 1 oil gusher in 1918.
Heavy rains and gushing wells had turned everything but the highest ground into a smelly quagmire, churned up by horse teams hauling in lumber and pipe for rig after rig. Enterprising young men offered to carry the unprepared across the unpaved 'streets,' earning 50 cents per passage. Most, however, were at work on the rigs, more than happy to spend their days covered with oil in exchange for the lucrative, if dangerous, jobs.
H.A. Erwin — the 'H.E.' in the H.B. and H.E. Drilling Co. — and his son Luke were among those newly minted drillers who flocked to what had been the tiny settlement of Burkburnett. Luke is the smiling young man seen third from left in this photo, while is father poses more stoicly fifth from right. Who the 'H.B.' was remains a mystery.
Driller P.L. Gilbert, seated on the pipe, seems unconcerned that excess oil is flowing onto the ground from the rig's overflow pipe. Perhaps he thought the gusher would never end. It did, of course. By the mid-1920s, the oil had played out and boom town era had passed. Burkburnett eased back into its status as a small town along the Red River.