For those of you not familiar with the place here's a history:-Ace Borger and his business partner John R. Miller purchased a 240-acre (0.97 km2) townsite near the
Canadian River in March 1926 after the discovery of oil in the vicinity. Within a few months, the
boomtown had swollen to a population of 45,000, most lured by sensational advertising and "
black gold". In October 1926, the city charter was adopted, and Miller was elected mayor. The boomtown of Borger soon had steam-generated electricity, telephone service, a hotel, and a jail. In the months that followed, oilmen,
roughnecks, prospectors, panhandlers, and fortune seekers were joined by
cardsharks, prostitutes,
bootleggers, and
drug dealers. The city became known as "Booger Town", as it attracted criminals and fugitives from the law. The town government soon fell under control of an
organized crime syndicate led by Mayor Miller's associate, "Two-Gun Dick" Herwig. Dixon Street (now Tenth Street) was the "red-light" district, housing
brothels, dance halls,
speakeasies, and gambling dens. Murder and robbery became an everyday occurrence, and illegal moonshining and home brewing flourished under the fatherly watch of Herwig and his henchmen, including W. J. (Shine) Popejoy, the king of the Texas bootleggers. Borger became so notorious that in the spring of 1927,
Texas Governor
Dan Moody sent a force of
Texas Rangers to rein in the town. The Texas Rangers were led by Captains
Frank Hamer and Thomas R. Hickman. (Hamer would go on to later fame and even infamy as the man who killed
Bonnie and Clyde.)
The Rangers did have a stabilizing effect, but Borger still struggled with lawlessness and violence into the 1930s, climaxing with the murder of District Attorney John A. Holmes by an assassin on September 18, 1929. This event caused Governor Moody to impose martial law for a month and send in state troops to help rid the town of its criminal element. Eventually, Borger settled down, but not before town founder Ace Borger was shot and killed at the post office by Arthur Huey on August 31, 1934. Huey was county treasurer and was irked at Ace Borger for not bailing him out of jail on an embezzlement charge. Huey shot Borger five times with a
Colt .45 pistol, even pulling Borger's own pistol out of his clothing and shooting him again, along with others there in the post office.
By the late 1930s, Borger was pushed from one era to another by the
Great Depression.
Phillips Petroleum and others profited from the oil fields in the area, but during this time, the price of oil and gas dropped, ending the "boom" and the rapid growth of Borger.
Carbon black plants added black soot to the
Dust Bowl storms, covering the town in layers of dark grime. "Okie" migrants forced off their foreclosed farms back in Oklahoma found work in Borger plants and refineries. The
Works Project Administration provided the town with new red-brick streets as the ramshackle shacks throughout town were replaced by more permanent buildings. During World War II,
synthetic rubber and other petroleum products became important in the Borger area. By the 1960s, the Borger area was one of the largest producers of oil, carbon black, and petrochemicals and supplies in the state
It s not as bad as it was but ........
Anyway - to a new challenge
