Freer Oil Boom Payroll Cache — Duval County

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Freer Oil Boom Payroll Cache — Duval County

Lost Treasure TX • Duval County County
Description
Freer legend of unrecovered oil-field payroll cash from the 1928–1930s boom when the town handled an estimated $500,000 monthly payroll with no bank and no jail.
Historical Notes
Freer exploded after W. P. Norton's 1928 wildcat struck one of the nation's largest oil reserves southwest of town. By 1933 Freer was the second-largest oilfield in the United States; Life magazine called it "the last of the tough frontier oil towns." Despite monthly payrolls estimated at $500,000, Freer had no bank, no jail, and unpaved main streets until 1938. Gamblers, prostitutes, and oil roughnecks concentrated cash in boomtown caches — a classic setting for lost-strongbox folklore in South Texas oil history. Coordinates mark downtown Freer at the intersection of U.S. Highway 59 and State highways 16, 44, and 339 in northwestern Duval County.
Status / Verification legend — Legendary or approximate

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