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UER Forum > Archived US: South > Carter Nine (Viewed 1688 times)
dwtaylor999 


Location: Unassigned Lands, Oklahoma
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Carter Nine
< on 8/5/2011 1:41 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Carter Nine was one of the many oil boom towns that sprang up around the Burbank field. It was unique in that it was company owned, built as a camp to house its offices and workers. It was exceptionally tough to find information or historical photographs on Carter Nine. The town ceased to exist over 60 years ago, but strangely still shows up on Google maps. Except for a few old timers, most of the locals have even forgotten it.



The remains of the town and refinery were spread over a large area, especially the refinery. I felt like an explorer deep in the jungle digging through the remains of a lost civilization. Hidden in the brush, there were ruins of structures everywhere, and though I walked at least a mile, the remains showed no signs of lessening. You could drive right by and never realize it was there, assuming for some reason you wanted to drive down a rough dirt road that wasn't much better than a cow path....



At the peak of the Burbank field oil boom in Osage county, Oklahoma, the Carter Oil Company arrived. The Carter Oil Company was founded in 1893 and became a subsidiary of Standard Oil. In 1915 the company moved its headquarters to Tulsa and began operating in the many oil fields in Oklahoma. The company later became one of the founding pieces of Exxon.









In 1920, the Carter Oil company purchased oil leases in the rapidly expanding Burbank field. Having seen the chaos and lawlessness of many of the oil boom towns, such as Whizbang, the company decided to build a contained and fenced community for its workers. Originally, Carter Oil wanted to build the camp at nearby Burbank, but was unable to find any property at a reasonable price, i.e. the locals tried to gouge the company. As a result, Carter Oil decided to build the camp on oil lease property they already owned. The camp was constructed in the 9th quadrant of the Carter Oil lease, hence the name Carter Nine.



The camp was originally built with company offices and two rows of 50 homes, a third row of homes was added later. As the boom continued, the camp
continued to expand, adding a school, stores, cafés, homes, etc in and around the camp. The community became an incorporated town with the establishment
of a post office on the 14th of August, 1928.











The town was considered very progressive for the era, with electricity and modern plumbing. Carter Oil had built a large naphtha plant nearby, which produced high octane gasoline, solvents, butane and propane. The company sponsored a high school, which excelled in sports and academic competition including basketball, track and tennis. Children from the smaller camps and area farms and ranches attended the school as well.











At its peak, the Burbank field had six refineries operating. As production waned, these plants begin to consolidate or close. The Skelly Oil Company took over the Carter Nine plant in 1935, who operated it until 1940, when the plant and the remaining Carter Oil Company holdings in the area were acquired by Phillips Petroleum. Much of the towns population was transferred or laid off when this occurred and the orignal camp was razed. The school remained, but by 1942, the high school had closed, with the grade school lasting until Phillips closed the original refinery in 1945. At it's peak, more than 500 homes surrounded Carter Nine, when the Burbank field employed between 30,000 and 40,000 people. By the time the plant was closing, this had dropped to a single grocery and 36 homes. One of the locals told me that by 1969, many of the remaining structures had burned and there was nothing left.













I found an old interview with a Loyd Rafferty, the owner of the last grocery in Carter Nine, which he was closing with the refinery shutdown. In the interview, he said that at it's peak, almost 10,000 people lived in or around Carter Nine. At the plant closing, less than 100 remained. Loyd had seen it all, getting his start by delivering bread by wagon from the Crocket Bakery in Burbank in the early 1920s. He had owned a grocery in Apperton and Whizbang, both which were essentially ghost towns by the time he opened his store in Carter Nine in 1935.



Some of the remains of the old refinery.






















The reporter who interviewed Loyd closed his interview with this:

"On a quiet Sunday morning the plant lost its rhythm, slowed, weakened and stopped as workmen made the final shutdown. The prairie became eerily silent as an era came to end."



Ruins, the fate of all cities.
Raticus 

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Re: Carter Nine
<Reply # 1 on 8/5/2011 4:45 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Great reporting as always! 2 of those trees look like they've been ravaged by a Oklahoma twister. And man, that is one SERIOUS sticker bush.

Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools speak because they have to say something.
apt213 


Location: Austin, TX
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I make pretty things out of dead stuff.

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Re: Carter Nine
<Reply # 2 on 8/5/2011 6:49 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Excellent photos, and fantastic historical info, as always.

I'm a little scared of those thorns, mister. You could hold up a bank with those!



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Re: Carter Nine
<Reply # 3 on 8/5/2011 11:38 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
thats some hella big thorns there bro

MIM-14 


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Re: Carter Nine
<Reply # 4 on 8/5/2011 1:50 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Great photos and research as always! Thank you for sharing.

dwtaylor999 


Location: Unassigned Lands, Oklahoma
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Re: Carter Nine
<Reply # 5 on 8/5/2011 3:25 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Thanks.

The trees did all have a northward slant. It would be a good spot for a wind farm, except the for occasional tornado and prairie fire.

Ruins, the fate of all cities.
dwtaylor999 


Location: Unassigned Lands, Oklahoma
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Re: Carter Nine
<Reply # 6 on 8/9/2011 9:01 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
http://www.youtube...=player_detailpage
[last edit 8/9/2011 9:01 PM by dwtaylor999 - edited 1 times]

Ruins, the fate of all cities.
Raticus 

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Re: Carter Nine
<Reply # 7 on 8/10/2011 1:36 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Excellent job man! Very impressive work. I put 3 videos together a couple of years ago, but never uploaded them. I never even think about YouTube. I guess thats the price I pay for getting old. Great Job!!

Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools speak because they have to say something.
dwtaylor999 


Location: Unassigned Lands, Oklahoma
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Re: Carter Nine
<Reply # 8 on 8/10/2011 2:41 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
I do them primarily for myself. It's a quick way to "revisit" a location. I tried to imbed it but haven't figured it out yet.

Ruins, the fate of all cities.
Raticus 

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Re: Carter Nine
<Reply # 9 on 8/10/2011 8:20 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
You can't embed them here. Or at least not by the rules. We banned moving avatars and movies a few years back because of the huge server space that it requires. UER just doesn't have enough space. Links are fine though, just like you posted.

Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools speak because they have to say something.
BatGirl 


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Re: Carter Nine
<Reply # 10 on 9/17/2011 3:00 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Video is really nicely done. I feel like I should know the music it sounds 'local' to me! (Canadian)

Driven to Decay...
Imbroglio 


Location: DFW
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The glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

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Re: Carter Nine
<Reply # 11 on 9/19/2011 12:10 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Posted by dwtaylor999

The reporter who interviewed Loyd closed his interview with this:

"On a quiet Sunday morning the plant lost its rhythm, slowed, weakened and stopped as workmen made the final shutdown. The prairie became eerily silent as an era came to end."



That's beautifully written. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but those two sentences hold their own pretty nicely.

http://www.noelkernsphotography.com
cr400 


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Re: Carter Nine
<Reply # 12 on 9/19/2011 1:57 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
DW, You're awesome. Thanks again for all you do.

You can see a million miles tonite, but you can't get very far.

Honorary member of UER lifetime acheivement award winning, 2Xplorations and Guide Services, Texas.
pkrearden 


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Re: Carter Nine
<Reply # 13 on 9/19/2011 8:11 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
always love your posts man.

"there is no devil, there's just god when he drinks." - Tom Waits
dwtaylor999 


Location: Unassigned Lands, Oklahoma
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Re: Carter Nine
<Reply # 14 on 9/19/2011 8:26 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Posted by Imbroglio


That's beautifully written. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but those two sentences hold their own pretty nicely.


I agree, I thought it was a nice touch. I just saw in the local town paper a reunion of Carter Nine and Little Chief, a similar "company" town is being held in Pawhuska, OK on September 30th. I'm going to try hard to attend and capture some of the stories before they're gone forever.


Thanks for the comments!
[last edit 9/19/2011 8:27 PM by dwtaylor999 - edited 1 times]

Ruins, the fate of all cities.
Raticus 

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Location: Tyler
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Re: Carter Nine
<Reply # 15 on 9/20/2011 3:27 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Posted by dwtaylor999
I'm going to try hard to attend and capture some of the stories before they're gone forever.


Thanks for the comments!


I hope you can do that. I made just such an effort about a month ago, visiting with my Dad and some of the "old timers" in the town where I grew up. Most of the places and people from the early 1900's are gone now. Only a few left. I took a digital voice recorder and spent 3 days getting stories and details from some of the remaining folks who were there.

Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools speak because they have to say something.
dwtaylor999 


Location: Unassigned Lands, Oklahoma
Gender: Male




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Re: Carter Nine
<Reply # 16 on 9/20/2011 5:35 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Posted by Raticus


I hope you can do that. I made just such an effort about a month ago, visiting with my Dad and some of the "old timers" in the town where I grew up. Most of the places and people from the early 1900's are gone now. Only a few left. I took a digital voice recorder and spent 3 days getting stories and details from some of the remaining folks who were there.


I'm going to try the same, and some video if they'll agree. Oklahoma has an ongoing project collecting these interviews for historical purposes, so if I can get some, I'll pass them on.

Ruins, the fate of all cities.
BatGirl 


Location: Oklahoma (AWOL Ontarian)
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Re: Carter Nine
<Reply # 17 on 9/22/2011 3:28 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Make sure you pass them on to your local archives as a collection. 2/3 of the people I have interviewed over the years are gone now.

Driven to Decay...
dwtaylor999 


Location: Unassigned Lands, Oklahoma
Gender: Male




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Re: Carter Nine
<Reply # 18 on 3/20/2012 3:16 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
A very nice lady named Mary contacted me recently and told me her mother had been born in Carter Nine in 1926. She was nice enough to scan some photos from the family scrap book and send to me. These photos date back to 1922.



























Ruins, the fate of all cities.
UER Forum > Archived US: South > Carter Nine (Viewed 1688 times)



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