Whizbang, Oklahoma

Last updated

Whizbang, Oklahoma
Ghost town
Whizbang.jpg
Whizbang (or Denoya) at its most prosperous in the early 1920s.
USA Oklahoma location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Whizbang, Oklahoma
Coordinates: 36°46′03″N96°42′27″W / 36.76763°N 96.707625°W / 36.76763; -96.707625
Country United States
State Oklahoma
County Osage
Time zone UTC-6 (Central (CST))
 • Summer (DST) UTC-5 (CDT)
GNIS feature ID1829088 [1]

Whizbang, officially called Denoya, [1] was an Oklahoma petroleum boom town in the 1920s and 1930s. [2] Located in Osage County, 1.5 miles north and 1.5 miles west of the present town of Shidler, the Whizbang area at its peak had a population of 10,000 persons and 300 businesses. It was considered the rowdiest of the many oil field towns in Oklahoma.

Contents

History

Whizbang was officially known as Denoya by the post office which did not consider the name Whizbang to be dignified. Denoya was the name of a prominent French/Osage Indian family. [3] Whizbang is located in the former Osage Indian Reservation which had the same boundaries as Osage County. [4]

Perhaps the most infamous of the Oklahoma oil boom towns, Whizbang came into existence overnight in 1921 when E.W. Marland drilled a 600 barrel per day oil well and precipitated an "oil rush" to the area. Both the quality and quantity of the petroleum were superb. The origin of the name "Whizbang" is uncertain. It may refer to a bawdy cartoon and joke magazine called "Captain Billy's Whiz Bang" which was popular in the day. Another theory is that the Osage residents imitated the sound of oil pumps and engines by saying "whizbang". [5] Another theory suggests that it was called Whizbang because "people whizzed all day and banged all night." [6]

Whizbang was a violent place. The bank was robbed twice and "it wasn't safe for a woman to be on the streets after dark." Highway robbers frequently robbed travelers along the road to Shidler at a place called "Pistol Hill". A man called "Jose Alvarado", whose real name was Bert Bryant, was hired by oil companies to keep the peace. Alvarado, a Texan, had ridden with Pancho Villa in Mexico. He was considered "everything from a cold-blooded killer to a Robin Hood." [7] [8]

Alvarado was once arrested for stealing $2,500 from a brothel owner, but he returned the money and was acquitted. He got into a gunfight with a lawman from a neighboring town over a woman. The other lawman killed the woman and shot Alvarado in the chest. In the ensuing melee, Alvarado shot the other man four times and had both his legs broken by bullets. The two men survived, were put in the same hospital, and became friends. [7] [8]

With the exhaustion of the petroleum reserves in the late 1920s Whizbang declined. The post office, established in 1921, was closed in 1942. Little remains of the town except a network of old roads.

People who lived and worked near Whizbang during its heyday included future actor Clark Gable who worked as a roustabout in the oil fields, [9] oilmen E.W. Marland and Frank Phillips, and rodeo star and Oscar-winning actor Ben Johnson, Jr.

Today

The foundations of old buildings in Whizbang, Oklahoma Building foundations in Denoya OK.jpg
The foundations of old buildings in Whizbang, Oklahoma

Today the rubble and remains of Whizbang can easily be seen from the road. Several sidewalks parallel the road, and a number of building foundations are in the area. A few occupied houses are nearby.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Osage County, Oklahoma</span> County in Oklahoma, United States

Osage County is the largest county by area in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Created in 1907 when Oklahoma was admitted as a state, the county is named for and is home to the federally recognized Osage Nation. The county is coextensive with the Osage Nation Reservation, established by treaty in the 19th century when the Osage relocated there from Kansas. The county seat is in Pawhuska, one of the first three towns established in the county. The total population of the county as of 2020 was 45,818.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burbank, Oklahoma</span> Town in Oklahoma, United States

Burbank is a town in western Osage County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 141 at the 2010 census, a 9 percent decrease from the figure of 155 recorded in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fairfax, Oklahoma</span> Town in Oklahoma, United States

Fairfax is a town in Osage County, Oklahoma, United States. The Osage Nation reservation is coterminous with the county. The population was 1,380 at the 2010 census, down 11.3 percent from the figure of 1,555 recorded in 2000. It was the home of the ballerinas Maria and Marjorie Tallchief.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foraker, Oklahoma</span> Town in Oklahoma, United States

Foraker is a ghost town in Osage County, Oklahoma, United States. It was named for Ohio Senator Joseph B. Foraker. The Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is southeast of town. The official population peaked at 415 in 1910 and has declined steadily since 1930. The population was only 18 at the 2010 census, a 21.7 percent decline from 23 in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pawhuska, Oklahoma</span> City in Oklahoma, United States

Pawhuska is a city in and the county seat of Osage County, Oklahoma, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 2,984. It was named after the 19th-century Osage chief, Paw-Hiu-Skah, which means "White Hair" in English. The Osage tribal government, which opened offices in Pawhuska in 1872 when its reservation was established in Indian Territory, continues to be based in Pawhuska.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shidler, Oklahoma</span> City in Oklahoma, United States

Shidler is a city in Osage County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 328 in the 2020 census, a decline from the figure of 441 recorded in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Webb City, Oklahoma</span> Town in Oklahoma, United States

Webb City is an unincorporated town in northwestern Osage County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 62 at the 2010 census, a 34.7 percent decline from the figure of 95 recorded in 2000. It was named for its founder, Horace Webb, on whose land the town was founded. The Webb City post office opened December 16, 1922.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ponca City, Oklahoma</span> City in Oklahoma, United States

Ponca City is a city in Kay County in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The city was named after the Ponca tribe. Ponca City had a population of 24,424 in the 2020 census, down from 25,387 at the time of the 2010 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Osage Indian murders</span> 1910s–1930s murders in Oklahoma, US

The Osage Indian murders were a series of murders of Osage Native Americans in Osage County, Oklahoma, during the 1910s–30s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tallgrass Prairie Preserve</span> Largest tract of remaining tallgrass prairie in the world

The Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, in Osage County, Oklahoma near Foraker, Oklahoma, is the largest protected tract of tallgrass prairie in the world. Managed by The Nature Conservancy, the preserve contains 39,650 acres (160 km2) owned by the Conservancy and another 6,000 acres (24 km2) leased in what was the original tallgrass region of the Great Plains that stretched from Texas to Manitoba.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">E. W. Marland</span> American politician (1874–1941)

Ernest Whitworth Marland was an American lawyer, oil businessman in Pennsylvania and Oklahoma, and politician who was a U.S. representative and Oklahoma governor. He served in the United States House of Representatives from northern Oklahoma, 1933 to 1935 and as the tenth governor of Oklahoma from 1935 to 1939. As a Democrat, he initiated a "Little Deal" in Oklahoma during the Great Depression, working to relieve the distress of unemployed people in the state, and to build infrastructure as investment for the future.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Joseph Mathews</span> American novelist

John Joseph Mathews became one of the Osage Nation's most important spokespeople and writers of the mid-20th century, and served on the Osage Tribal Council from 1934 to 1942. Mathews was born into an influential Osage family, the son of William Shirley Mathews an Osage Nation tribal councilor. He studied at the University of Oklahoma, Oxford University, and the University of Geneva and serving as a pilot during World War I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">E. W. Marland Mansion</span> Historic house in Oklahoma, United States

The E.W. Marland Mansion is a 43,561 square feet (4,046.9 m2) Mediterranean Revival-style mansion located in Ponca City, Oklahoma, United States. Built by oil baron and philanthropist Ernest Whitworth (E.W.) Marland, as a display of wealth at the peak of the 1920s oil boom, the house is one of the largest residences in the southwestern United States, and is known as the "Palace on the Prairie." It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1973, and is now a museum open to the public.

Carter Nine was an unincorporated community in Osage County, Oklahoma, United States, located 2.5 miles (4.0 km) south of Shidler. Carter Nine had a post office, which opened on August 14, 1928. Carter Nine began as a company-owned town to house workers for an oil refinery operated by the Carter Oil Company. The company originally planned to build housing in Burbank, but decided the cost would be too high. Instead it created its own town in 1922, known as Carter Nine. The name Carter Nine was derived from a combination of the Carter Oil Company and the community's location in Section 9 of Township 26 North, Range 6 East.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Osage Casino</span>

The Osage Nation operates seven casinos in Oklahoma, under the name Osage Casinos. The 25th largest tribe in the United States, the people are based on their reservation encompassing Osage County, Oklahoma. It is larger than the U.S. states of Delaware and Rhode Island.

<i>Killers of the Flower Moon</i> (book) 2017 nonfiction book by David Grann

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI is a 2017 nonfiction book by American journalist David Grann about the Osage murders. Time magazine listed Killers of the Flower Moon as one of its top ten nonfiction books of 2017.

The Osage Railway was incorporated in 1921 to accommodate traffic from the oil fields located in the Osage Nation. The first part of its mainline was constructed in 1922 from a connection with the Midland Valley Railroad at Foraker, Oklahoma, to the town of Shidler, Oklahoma, about 10 miles southwest. The line was independently owned from the Midland Valley, but was jointly operated with the Midland Valley and two other lines as part of the Muskogee Roads. Beginning July 2, 1923 and completing in early 1924, the Osage Railway's trackage was extended northwesterly from Shidler through Webb City to Lyman, Oklahoma, about another 6 miles.

Lyman was a town in Osage County, Oklahoma, located about 20 miles northeast of Ponca City, Oklahoma, and 30 miles southeast of Winfield, Kansas, the two closest population centers. It became an oilfield boomtown shortly after the discovery of the Burbank field in 1920. It was named after A.J. Lyman, who platted the town and sold the lots.

Three Sands was an oil and gas boomtown which sprang into existence about November 1922 and ceased to exist in 1957. It was located along the Tonkawa-Perry road, now US Route 77, in the area of the Kay County and Noble County border, in the State of Oklahoma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Grammer</span> American cowboy and murderer (1883–1923)

Henry F. Grammer was an American cowboy, bootlegger, and murderer from Texas. Grammer was among the perpetrators of the Osage Indian murders. He died in 1923 under suspicious circumstances during a federal investigation of these events. For his career as a cowboy, he was posthumously inducted into the National Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2000.

References

  1. 1 2 U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Whizbang, Oklahoma [ dead link ]
  2. ↑ Morris, John Wesley (1977). Ghost towns of Oklahoma. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 64. ISBN   0-8061-1420-7.
  3. ↑ "Denoya (Whizbang), Oklahoma, Osage County". The Okie Legacy. Archived from the original on March 30, 2012. Retrieved October 23, 2011.
  4. ↑ May, Jon D. Osage County, Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture . Retrieved September 25, 2011.
  5. ↑ "Whizbang Memories Abound". Lee, Robert E., Daily Oklahoman, May 29, 1988. Retrieved June 13, 2019.
  6. ↑ Grann, David (2017). Killers of the flower moon : the Osage murders and the birth of the FBI (1st ed.). New York. ISBN   978-0-385-53424-6. OCLC   953738449.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. 1 2 "Shidler, Oklahoma History". The Virtual Realm. Archived from the original on July 11, 2011. Retrieved February 25, 2011.
  8. 1 2 "Denoya". The Spell of the West. Archived from the original on September 12, 2011. Retrieved February 25, 2011.
  9. ↑ "Clark Gable's Oklahoma years". Sam Henderson, The Oklahoman, December 18, 1983. Retrieved February 29, 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.