Hi, 1. They struck oil at Desdemona and Ranger. 2. Associated with #1 was John L. Lewis's first Strike- not the first Thurber strike- the European immigrants in company housing- 30, 000, plus, wanted more money Listening to a Yankee's advice cost them their jobs and company homes, as , if they got their raise, coal would be more expensive than Oil to refuel California and Eastbound TP trains. There was also another railroad at Mingus, across the county line. 3. Acme brick, formerly Thurber brick had the same fuel problem as the Railroad. They are now north of Weatherford, Mary Martin's home. The same thing happened to the Newcastle mine near Graham, Texas and the mines in Oklahoma met the same fate. The coal is still there- some is mined open pit for standby fuel and Chapparal Steel of Midloithian was useing it to melt cars into rebar construction steel and burn medical waste. Two Oklahoma mining towns were settled by Czech immigrants- some Czewch from Newcastle settled in West, Texas and others in small towns south of Wichita Falls. They sure make good Kolaches and Strucel and Kioblasneik. Take care, Charles Wyly Ta On Fri, 29 Oct 1999 23:17:15 -0000 "jmautrey" <jmautrey(a)email.msn.com&gt; writes: