I am far from alone in my fascination with what life must have been like in an early 20th century boom town, whether the boom was in gold, copper, silver or oil. The Westerns and period dramas we watch on our computers, or indeed in cinemas in the good old days, paint a dark picture of men with disposable moral fibre and transient communities, where life is cheap and true friendships rare.
There seemed very little by way of law and order and every day could well be an individual’s last. Cowboy capitalists mingled with snake oil salesmen and a whole host of other cartoon characters with no compass as to what was right and what was wrong. These were avaricious, single-minded communities where vice did not lie under the surface - it was right there in main street.
That makes for good material for a storyteller. I think Taylor Sheridan’s 1923 - shot in the copper boom town of Butte, Montana - conveys all the right vibes.
The Texas Oil boom between 1900 and the depression, catapulted Texas from a rural farming state, to one of America’s most industrialised, in just one generation. That could not have come without many stories.
Texas was and always will be the spiritual home of the cowboy: the custodian of the last frontier; the emblematic figurehead of Americana. How exactly did they fit into the oil boom when their life was cattle and ranches?
My sense is that they would have fitted in seamlessly and added some dignity, work ethic and class to the whole affair. Cowboys are pragmatists.
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