After the Healdton field was discovered in August 1913, crude oil production in the surrounding area created an oversupply of petroleum while producers protested that pipeline purchases were inadequate and that they were being deprived of the individual right to produce and sell their share of the field's output. In May 1914, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission ordered the pipeline carrier to increase purchases of produced oil, provide facilities for rail shipment, build field tankage, and purchase oil ratably and equitably from Healdton producers. This action, bringing proration of oil purchasing nine months after the field's discovery, made Healdton the first field in Oklahoma to be regulated by a state commission and became an early forerunner of petroleum conservation laws aimed at preventing physical and economic waste in most oil states. By late 1915, prolific production at Healdton and other Oklahoma oil fields supplied energy for the growing automotive age in the United States and for the Allied war machine of World War I. As the field boomed, an influx of oil men overtaxed local facilities, and hastily built stores, rooming and boarding houses, and entertainment places turned the community into a typical oil boom town whose principal boom area was called Ragtown.