I give you the exit to Perry, Oklahoma, population about 5,200. It is nestled in north central Oklahoma about 30-40 some miles south of the Kansas border. The water coming out of the tap in resident's homes catches fire from the methane. More interestingly, the ground shakes with 3.0+ earthquakes 3-4 times a day.
It started out as Wharton, OK as a train stop. The infamous Dalton Gang robbed a train there. That was 136 years ago. 126 years ago, 1893 to be exact, a strip of land was opened up for settlement (the Cherokees didn't get a vote).
"At noon on September 16, 1893, "a run" for land within "the Strip" was opened. An estimated 100,000 men, women, and children took part and by nightfall 40,000 had erected tents in Perry. Jack Tearney started at the county line and reached Perry within 31 minutes. By 4:00 p.m. he had erected and opened the "Blue Bell" saloon selling beer the first day for $1.00 a bottle, due to the scarcity of water. He would sell 38,000 glasses".
Named "Hell's Half Acre", the original town's perimeter included A & F streets and 1st and 9th streets. About 110 saloons and gambling houses were in operation with many of them set up 1/2 block east of the east side of the now existing square.
A new Hell's half acre has sprung up in the outskirts. Water is still scarce but what there is is pumped
 |
| A fracking tower in 'campo aperto" |
From these tower's efforts, we get natural gas, a lot of pollution and water that burns....well "ignites" is a better term. We also get a bonus: earthquakes. Lots of them. In fact, we get more in an area that has no fault lines than occur on the San Andreas fault on our west coast. Here is a summary of the last few hours:
I don't want to be a nudge.But let's see what we have here. We build these mechanical messes all over the place. They foul the land. They cause water to ignite when it comes out of the tap and they cause earthquakes where there shouldn't be one a lifetime.
Just a visit to Perry Oklahoma on a nice spring morning.