Sentinel on the Red River - Burkburnett - 1919
When Burkburnett began to get lively after the big 1918 strike in town, derricks flew up as fast as lumber could be brought in, leases were signed at all hours of the day & night, and fortunes were won & lost daily.
Every inch of available space was used to sink wells and the town crawled with wildcatters out to make a mint. That's exactly what you'd expect in a boomtown, right?
In stark contrast to our other Burkburnett piece, this eerily serene 1919 scene shows another side of Burkburnett & Wichita County, away from all of the action. It depicts a lone derrick, standing watch over the Red River and the Texas/Oklahoma border.
There is no hustle or bustle, no Oil Fever, no speculators, no money changing hands, nothing stuck in the mud. A simple auto bridge (likely where I-44 crosses the River now) and the photographer are the derrick's only companions.
But as every student of Texas petroleum history knows, all of this and more was going on just beyond the reach of the camera.
Print Number Five in the C. A. Warner Memorial Series of Historic Texas Oil Field Images
Physical Details
- 24 by 18 inches
- Limited Edition of 254 Copies
- Each one is hand-numbered
These inks are guaranteed color-fast for 80 years, which means you won't need to lay out the extra money for UV glass. You can hang your print in direct sun and it will be just as bright when they are passed on to the next generation as a family heirloom as it is the day it ships.
All you need to do choose any standard 18 by 24 inch frame from your local frame shop.
Like all prints in this series, it is a Limited Edition of only 254 hand-numbered, one for each county in Texas.
It's an instant heirloom.
