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History in
a Pecan Shell
The town had no
19th Century history and was born with the boom of the Burkburnett
oil field around 1920. The town was named after it’s most distinguishing
landmark - a one mile bridge over the Red River. The toll bridge connected
Wichita County,
Texas with Tillman County, Oklahoma.
Although the population was transient, some permanent structures were
constructed. The town had a post office from 1920 until sometime in
the 1930s.
Bridgetown’s population went from a peak of 10,000 to a mere 100 persons
in the mid 1920s.
Bridgetown’s last population figures were given as eighty (in the
late 1940s). |
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Historical
Marker:
BRIDGETOWN
When the northwest
extension of the Burkburnett
oil field opened in 1919, prospectors thronged this area. Bridgetown
sprang up at the Texas end of a mile-long Red River toll bridge built
for oil field traffic. It became the largest and wealthiest of 12
communities that mushroomed in this area during rivalry among major
oil companies and independent producers. Lease values rose from $10
to $20,000 an acre. A city of tents, shanties and a few substantial
structures, Bridgetown had a long main street with a Mission church
at one end and a saloon at the other. Its post office opened July
15, 1920. The population in the early 1920s was estimated at 3,500
to 10,000. Litigation over riverbed oil rights caused the U.S. Supreme
Court to station a receiver in the town. He was Frederick A. Delano,
uncle of future president Franklin D. Roosevelt. With aid from Texas
Rangers, Delano and other leaders invoked law and order.
In a few years oil yields diminished, and the jail, theaters, dance
halls, and gambling houses vanished. By 1929 only 100 inhabitants
remained. By 1931 the bridge was down, the post office closed in 1935.
Afterward the site of the makeshift oil "capital" reverted to range
and agricultural uses.
(1977) |
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Historical
Marker:
THE RECEIVER
BRIDGE
A natural border
of the Louisiana Territory when it was acquired by the United States
in 1803. The Red River later served as a boundary between the states
of Texas and Oklahoma. The exact location for the line of separation
was challenged in 1920 soon after an extension of the Burkburnett
oil field led to increased drilling activity in the area, including
the banks and the bed of the stream. Since the Red River meandered,
causing wide flood plains, the state of Oklahoma initiated a suit
to determine ownership of the land. By authority of the United States
Supreme Court, the disputed land was temporarily placed under the
jurisdiction of the federal government.
Frederick A. Delano, whose nephew Franklin Delano Roosevelt later
became president of the United States, was named as the receiver
in charge of the property. As part of his plan of supervision, he
had a one-lane wooden bridge (2.5 miles North) built to the center
of the river, providing access to the drilling sites.
The boundary between the two states was set as the south bank of
the Red River in 1923. It was not until four years later that a
special commission completed the actual survey work. The bridge
was partially destroyed later during a 1935
flood.
(1981)
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Reader's Comment:
“During the late 1970s I often crossed over the rundown and almost
dismantled foot bridge. To do so, one had to walk on cables only at
times. Not long into the 1980s, the bridge vanished in a huge flood
and nothing is left today of Bridgetown except for some concrete foundations
here and there.” - Gaylon White, Wichita
Falls , July 2004 |
| Anyone wishing
to share old photos of the wooden foot bridge, please submit
here. |
| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories,
landmarks and recent or vintage photos, please contact
us. |
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