During the oil boom in the Burbank field in the 1920’s towns often sprang up over night. One such was the town of Apperson, located on the west side of the Burbank Field. Legend has it the town was named for the Apperson automobile, one of the many early automobile manufacturers.
Like all boom towns, the money flowed, growth was rapid, where a year before, it had been nothing but a lonely spot on the prairie next to the AT&SF railway, a real town had been created. A large wooden school was built, the Apperson Telephone Company was formed and a telephone exchange installed, and multiple businesses now lined the dirt main street, including a post office, lumber yard, garage, grocery store, rooming houses, barber shop, two teaming contractors, a bank, and multiple frame residences. There was talk of building an improved road from the new boom town to Arkansas City in Kansas, and businessmen actually came down to tour the new town, and though proposed, it never materialized.
Though the railway ran near the south east corner of the town, it was not a rail stop, the nearest being at Burbank and the railroad siding at Soldani. While this was only a few miles away, in this era, roads were basically cow paths, and many people still traveled by horse and buggy. The town petitioned Sante Fe for a depot and was refused, so they took their petition to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission and a hearing was held on the 20th of April 1921. Apperson claimed the new stop would shorten the wagon haul to the oil fields lying west of Salt Creek for men and materials. Sante Fe rebutted, stating the other stops were adequate and adding another at Apperson would not significantly reduce it's costs, and would in fact cost $53,307 to construct. The Oklahoma Corporation commission felt that Sante Fe's costs were inflated, but agreed that the installing station facilities at Apperson would not add new territory or increased traffic on the Sante Fe.
The commission estimated the actual cost to construct the siding and depot would be about $20,000 and it ordered the parties to essentially split the cost. The town of Apperson was to present a $10,000 draft to the railway before August 1st, 1921, and Sante Fe was ordered to build a siding and depot. The track would be 1,000 feet long from head block to head block which allowed for spotting of about 14 cars between clearance points. Sante Fe was ordered to install the track and pre-pay station on or before the 15th of September, 1921, and so it was. The town site was officially plotted in August of 1920 and the town celebrated, proud that they were now a "real" city.
Estimates place Apperson's population somewhere around 5,000 at the peak, including the surrounding areas. By 1923, the school was far to small, and a brick high school was built. The Apperson American newspaper began publication the same year.
As quickly as it began, the boom started to fall apart. Apperson was on the western edge of the field, with exploration moving further north. On July 28th, 1924, the Bank of Apperson failed and people began to move, following the oil. By 1929, the high school was closed, its final graduation class consisting of three students. Most of the businesses and the hard fought depot had closed or moved to other nearby towns, with the final grocery store closing in 1935. The grade school was shuttered in the early 1940s and consolidated with the nearby Burbank school district.
Very little of Apperson remains today, other than a few homes and scattered bits of foundation and sidewalk. Surprisingly, the hard fought depot still stands, though not in it's original location. It was moved to Burbank and sits just south of state highway 60, easily visible from the road itself. Having served as a barn for the last several decades, its only customers today are horses.