Old Rock Store with Apartment in Oklahoma $50K

After WWI, amateur geologist Joe Cromwell sank all his money into purchasing as many oil leases as his life savings would allow into the area. From there, he formed his own very successful oil company, and virtually overnight the town went from a population of zero to 10,000 residents. With that boom, however, came the seedier side of life, including saloons, rooming houses, bordellos, dance and gambling halls. There was not enough room for all the oil workers so they set up tents and shanties, sometimes even living on top of roofs.

Ma Murphy’s was said to have dance girls working as slaves, and during Prohibition doctors would sit outside drug stores writing prescriptions for whiskey.  Organized crime demaded pay-offs from businesses. All this with no city government or police department.

When Joe Cromwell realized his city was going to pot, he began an attempt to clean it up by paying for and building a rock church. A chain link fence was constructed in lieu of a jail to which criminals were handcuffed before they could be transported to the nearest jail 15 miles away. A Marshall was elected with deputies, women were discouraged from entering the town, and water barrels were installed to fight fires.

After Marshall Bill Tilghman was shot dead in the street, a huge fire destroyed most of the town. By this time, the oil boom was fizzling. Dance hall doors were padlocked and in five years time, the town had regained respectability. Today the population is 286.

*