Burkburnett became one of Texas's most famous boom towns. Its name was given to the post office at the request of President T.R. Roosevelt after his 1905 wolf hunt with rancher Burk Burnett in the area. The townsite was laid out in 1907 by Joseph A. Kemp and Frank Kell, surveyors and promoters of the Wichita Falls & Northwestern Railroad. The first oil discovery was Chris Schmoker No. 1 in 1912. On July 29, 1918, a 2200-barrel gusher came in on the S.L. Fowler farm about a mile from this site, brought in by a company formed by Fowler, his brother, W.D. Cline, and J.I. Staley. Within three months, 200 wells had been completed in the Burkburnett townsite, creating a forest of derricks. Money and oil flowed freely, and a bank capitalized at $25,000 received monthly revenue of $10,000 from a well drilled at its back door. The town's population rose from 1500 to 15,000 in a year. The boom area spread with finds on Burk-Waggoner Company properties and by Kemp-Munger-Allen operations to the southwest. In 1941, the movie “Boomtown,” filmed from the popular story “Lady Comes to Burkburnett,” made the town world famous. Its economy depends on agriculture and oil, and an important neighbor is Sheppard Air Force Base.