A history of Slick,
then and now
Postcards, papers and photographs of Slick from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Slick began as an oil boom town in 1920, and was named for oilman Thomas B. Slick, who drilled a discovery well nearby. A railroad, the Oklahoma-Southwestern Railway, was completed into town the same year. By 1922, the town had an estimated population of 2500-3500.
However, production of oil began to decline in the latter part of 1923, and the railroad was abandoned by 1930. So when the town appeared for the first time in the U.S. census in 1930, the population was only 422, a figure which declined until 1950 and has since fluctuated. All of its employed citizens commute to work in Bristow, Sapulpa, and Tulsa.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Slick’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewOil storage tanks. Slick, Oklahoma, 1940: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people close to Slick
See all 23 →
Slick, decade by decade
LOCOil storage tanks. Slick, Oklahoma1940
LOCOil well on the pump. Slick, Oklahoma1940
LOCStreet scene in oil bust town1940
LOCOil draining from tanks into slush pit. Slick, Oklahoma1940
LOCAbandoned building in the oil ghost town of Slick, Oklahoma1940
LOCCotton gin in the oil ghost town of Slick, Oklahoma1940
LOCDeserted bank building in the oil ghost town of Slick, Okla…1940
LOCUntitled photo, possibly related to: Street scene in oil bu…1940
LOCUntitled photo, possibly related to: Street scene in oil bu…1940
LOCUntitled photo, possibly related to: Street scene in oil bu…1940
LOCUntitled photo, possibly related to: Street scene in oil bu…1940
LOCUntitled photo, possibly related to: Street scene in oil bu…19401990s
Nothing in Slick is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Slick has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Isparhecher House and Grave in Beggs, 7.9 miles away.
Slick and the nearest listed places
How a place gets listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Oil storage tanks. Slick, Oklahoma (1940) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom the Library of Congress (12). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.