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UER Forum > Archived US: South > The ghost town of Webb City (Viewed 650 times)
dwtaylor999 


Location: Unassigned Lands, Oklahoma
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The ghost town of Webb City
< on 12/2/2012 10:54 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Webb City was a direct product of the Burbank Field oil boom, one of many "boom" towns that sprang up, it started as an oil camp. A townsite was
established on land owned by Horace Webb in 1921, and like the boom town it was, it ah...boomed. The townsite officially become Webb City, in honor of Horace, with the opening of the post office on December 16th, 1922.




Horace had settled near Grainola with his wife and nine children in 1910. He purchased additional land as it became available and helped start the area's first school. Once the townsite of Webb City was established, he also helped establish the first school ther, which became part of the Shidler-Webb City school district 11.


1st grade, 1921



Wooden school, 1923



Main Street


Blue Front Grocery




Located on the northwestern edge of the Burbank field, Phillips petroleum acquired the right to drill on Webb's property, which he then sold. A spur line of the Midland Valley, called the Osage Railway, was extended from the boom town of Shidler to the boom town of Lyman, via Webb City in 1923-24. The original wooden school was rapidly outgrown and a "modern" brick school was built in 1924. It was identical to the school built in Shidler at the same time, though it faced East.


Osage railway



Brick school, 1924



The oil flowed and the town grew, but never seemed to lose it's "camp" mentality and life remained crude. The town lacked reliable electricity, fresh water was scarce, and false fronted wooden buildings lined unpaved streets. The town never had a newspaper, unusual for the era. By the late 1920s, oil production was dropping off and the town was in decline. In 1928, there was a large outbreak of tornadoes stretching from Texas into Nebraska, and Webb City was not spared. The town was severely damaged by one of the tornadoes, and many of the businesses were never rebuilt.


Main street after the tornado



The Dodge dealership



The pool hall




As oil production continued to decline, and several smaller nearby schools were consolidated with the Webb City school. The included several oil camp one and two room schools, and the schools of Cooper and Lyman.





The Banking was a bit involved. The First State Bank of Webb City was chartered in 1922 and in 1924, it absorbed the First State Bank of Denoya aka
Whizbang, only to be acquired by the First National Bank of Pawnee in 1927. The First State Bank of Quay, also a failing oil boom town, moved it's bank to Webb City on June 13th, 1927, becoming the "new" First State Bank of Webb City, only to fail on May 22, 1928.


With the arrival of the Great Depression in 1929, the steady decline continued, with the population shrinking through the 1930s. By 1944, the high school was closed and consolidated with Shidler, it's last graduating class consisting of 16 students. The grade school remained in place. After WWII, the aging refineries in the area, kept open for the war effort, began to close. No refined oil meant no need for rail, and in 1955 the Osage Railway was abandoned.























In 1956, the grade school was closed forever and consolidated with Shidler, followed shortly afterwards by the post office.

The remains of the old school.












Little remains of Webb City today, a few homes, some foundations and sidewalks of what was once the business district, and the scattered debris of the oil fields. As of the 2010 census, 62 people call Webb City home.

























In 1943, and young man named Jack Hartman graduated from the Webb City high school, only a scant year before its last class. He went on to play basketball and football at Oklahoma State, had a brief stint playing quarterback in the CFL, and then turned to coaching basketball. He initially coached the Coffeyville Kansas Junior College to the national championship in 1962, going undefeated. He was then offered head coach at the University of Southern Illinois, where in 1967 they won the NIT Championship.





He was offered the head coach at Kansas State in 1970, where he remained for the next 16 years, becoming the most successful coach in the schools history. While there he was voted coach of the year by the National Association of Basketball Coaches for the 1980-1981. In the 1983 Pan American games, he coached the US mens basketball team to a gold medal. This team included a young player named Michael Jordon.









[last edit 12/3/2012 2:46 AM by dwtaylor999 - edited 3 times]

Ruins, the fate of all cities.
Keaven 


Location: 15 miles from the Grassy Knoll
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Re: The ghost town of Webb City
<Reply # 1 on 12/3/2012 1:10 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Outstanding work!
Great research and documentation.
Great contrast between the historic and the current photos!

fiftyone_eggs 


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Re: The ghost town of Webb City
<Reply # 2 on 12/3/2012 3:39 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
That is wonderful stuff DW!!

Tenebrae 


Location: The Wild West


Life's short; eat dessert first.

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Re: The ghost town of Webb City
<Reply # 3 on 12/4/2012 1:25 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Posted by Keaven
Outstanding work!
Great research and documentation.
Great contrast between the historic and the current photos!


+1

Seems like it would have been a depressing place to grow up.

cr400 


Location: Los Angeles, CA
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Re: The ghost town of Webb City
<Reply # 4 on 12/4/2012 7:32 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Love your work DW. Nice job tying Michael Jordan into this...... Now try to get Kevin Bacon in there.......
[last edit 12/5/2012 4:46 PM by cr400 - edited 1 times]

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.
dwtaylor999 


Location: Unassigned Lands, Oklahoma
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Re: The ghost town of Webb City
<Reply # 5 on 12/5/2012 2:08 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Posted by cr400
Love your work DW. Nice job tying Michael Jordan into this...... Now try to get Kevin Bacon in their.......


Ha!

Ruins, the fate of all cities.
txwader 






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Re: The ghost town of Webb City
<Reply # 6 on 12/7/2012 1:49 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Good stuff.

MonoxideChild 


Location: Rockford, IL
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Re: The ghost town of Webb City
<Reply # 7 on 12/7/2012 2:05 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Love so much history to go along with the photos

~Quote By Thomas Edison~
I have far more respect for the person with a single idea who gets there than for the person with a thousand ideas who does nothing....
cowtownclimber 


Location: Fort Worth
Gender: Male


e^(i*Pi)+1=0

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Re: The ghost town of Webb City
<Reply # 8 on 12/7/2012 5:11 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Once again you have shown why you are my favorite person on this forum.

UER Forum > Archived US: South > The ghost town of Webb City (Viewed 650 times)



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