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For inscriptions see: * Clara Cemetery.
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Photos by Joe Derr
W of Burkburnett on SH 240
Historical
Marker: Ghost
town of Clara
Herman Specht
migrated in 1870 to Galveston from Germany. In 1884 he married
Clara M. Vogel Lange (1853-1912), A wealthy widow. Adding to
earlier property holdings in Galveston, he began buying extensive
tracts of land in Northern Wichita County, which eventually totaled
21,000 acres. In 1886 he platted the town of Clara which he named
for his wife. The streets were named for Texas heroes. He donated
this site for the Trinity Lutheran Church. Specht advertised
for German Colonists from other States to sette here. Specht
built his home in Iowa Park in 1890 and ran a ranch at Clara
where he grew wheat. North of the church site, he had a large
experimental nursery for unusual plants. The 1891 drought wiped
out the nursery and specht's crops. The 1900 Galveston storm
destroyed the remainder of their vast holdings. Clara included
a church, schools, store, garage and post office. Hampered by
an inadequate water supply, the town began to decline with the
consolidation of the school with the Burkburnett schools. During
the oil boom of the 1920s, many residents moved to Wichita Falls.
Good roads and cars made it possible to shop elsewhere. The town
finally vanished accept for the church rectory and cemetery.
Historical
Marker: Bridgetown
(Ghost townsite, located near this site, on Red River)
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 amoung 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 river bed oil rights caused the US 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.