The Queen of Hamburger Row - A reluctant prostitute

By Richard Mason
$3.99 Rating: Not yet rated.
Published: Dec. 15, 2011
Words: 115,681 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN: 9781466054271

Short description

Hays screamed and danced in the spray of oil as it covered everything in sight. Bill and the crew, who had never seen anything like this huge fountain of oil, were mesmerized as they stood there, getting drenched. Clyde was the first to realize the obvious. “We’re rich! Rich! Rich! This fuckin’ well has done made us all rich!” El Dorado, Arkansas is a real town.

Extended description

Bud turned off the motors, and for a few minutes there was a deathly silence on the rig. Then the sound of drilling mud splashing out on the rig floor broke the silence, and the sub-floor of the derrick began to quiver as the well picked up force. Now heads of mud began to kick up three to four feet above the rig floor.

“Get off the floor! She’s comin’ in!” yelled Hays.The first spray of oil surged halfway up the derrick, and, as the well came in, a dull roar like the sound of a passing freight train filled the air. Soon a stream of oil was spewing through the crown of the derrick.

Hays screamed and danced in the spray of oil as it covered everything in sight. Bill and the crew, who had never seen anything like this huge fountain of oil, were mesmerized as they stood there, getting drenched. (Read more) Bud turned off the motors, and for a few minutes there was a deathly silence on the rig. Then the sound of drilling mud splashing out on the rig floor broke the silence, and the sub-floor of the derrick began to quiver as the well picked up force. Now heads of mud began to kick up three to four feet above the rig floor.

“Get off the floor! She’s comin’ in!” yelled Hays.The first spray of oil surged halfway up the derrick, and, as the well came in, a dull roar like the sound of a passing freight train filled the air. Soon a stream of oil was spewing through the crown of the derrick.

Hays screamed and danced in the spray of oil as it covered everything in sight. Bill and the crew, who had never seen anything like this huge fountain of oil, were mesmerized as they stood there, getting drenched.

Clyde was the first to realize the obvious. “We’re rich! Rich! Rich! This fuckin’ well has done made us all rich!”

***

El Dorado, Arkansas is a real town.
The roaring gusher that blew in on a cold January day in 1921 was a cataclysmic event for this small, southern Arkansas village. The population skyrocketed from barely 3,500 to over 40,000 in less than two years, and law enforcement officials were overwhelmed. During the first two years of the boom, dozens of buildings, called barrelhouses, were hurriedly thrown up on South Washington Avenue, nicknamed Hamburger Row. Open saloons, where gambling, prostitution, and drugs flourished, lined the street. The hundreds of murders committed by”hijackers, “as the oilfield workers called them, are well-documented, and Jake’s Place, the biggest and wildest of the lot, was a real barrelhouse. Jake, Smiling Jack, Lucky Bob, Weasel, Silvertop, and Big Ed were all part of the lawless crowd that flooded the community.

The grim, unsanitary conditions, where mules drowned in the muddy squalor of sewer-filled streets, are factual, and, yes, prostitutes did ride out on horseback to service the rig crews. To accurately document the working and living conditions during the boom, written and oral histories from the Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources have been used.

During the early years of the boom, the barrelhouses on South Washington Avenue were home to hundreds of prostitutes, and many of these young women were held against their will. And yes, there is a legend of a beautiful former beauty queen with scarlet hair and light green eyes who was known as The Queen of Hamburger Row. Maybe, through the eyes of beautiful Masha, you will be able to get a glimpse of Hamburger Row and the seamy, violent life that was a part of the raucous oil boom, where thousands rushed in, some to become millionaires, and others to be found murdered in back alleys.
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Tags

prostitute, arkansas, 1922, el dorado, oil gush, queen of hamburger row, hamburger row, oil town, flapper girl

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