In 1938 LIFE magazine took its readers to a place that is even more exotic today than it was back then—the streets of a hastily constructed oil boom town in South Texas.
The town was called Freer, which is a little more than 100 miles south of San Antonio. It wasn’t much of a place at all until some wildcatters struck oil there in 1928, and then a massive well began pumping in 1932. As described by the Texas Historical Society, “By 1933 Freer was the second-largest oilfield in the United States and had attracted a flood of settlers from Oklahoma, Kansas, and other midwestern states.”
LIFE staff photographer Carl Mydans visited Freer in 1938 about found a town that was bustling but ramshackle, set up to suit the needs of roughneck mercenaries. The story was headlined “Freer: Biggest of Oil’s New Boom Towns Squats in the Muds of Texas.” The magazine described the residents of Freer by saying, “They buy only essentials for living, gamble away most of their earnings.” LIFE declared that “Freer may well be last the of the tough frontier oil towns.”
Mydans’ photos do a wonderful job of taking viewers to a place that looks like a slightly modernized version of the old West. There are cars downtown, for sure, but men sit in saloons in to drinking and play dominos. One restaurant is a shack with a tarp for a roof. The main street of the town was unpaved, which meant that when it rained cars got stuck in the mud.
Perhaps the image that best captures the sobering reality of life in Freers is one of a group of kids crowded into in a shack that would be smaller than a living room in most modern homes. That shack was the entire living quarters for two families.
The population of Freer in the 1930s is estimated at between 5,000 to 8,000 people. In 2024 the population was 2,352. So at least from that one narrow perspective, these images are of the town at its heyday—and LIFE’s photographer was one of many who came to plumb its riches.
The frontier oil town of Freer, Texas, 1938.
Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The frontier oil town of Freer, Texas, 1938.
Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The frontier oil town of Freer, Texas, 1938.
Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The frontier oil town of Freer, Texas, 1938.
Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The frontier oil town of Freer, Texas, 1938.
Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The frontier oil town of Freer, Texas, 1938.
Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The frontier oil town of Freer, Texas, 1938, where the unpaved streets could get muddy after a rain.
Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The frontier oil town of Freer, Texas, 1938, where the unpaved streets could get muddy after a rain.
Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The frontier oil town of Freer, Texas, 1938.
Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The frontier oil town of Freer, Texas, 1938.
Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The frontier oil town of Freer, Texas, 1938.
Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The frontier oil town of Freer, Texas, 1938.
Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The barber in Freer, Texas., a frontier oil town, 1938.
Carl Mydans?Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The frontier oil town of Freer, Texas, 1938.
Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The frontier oil town of Freer, Texas, 1938.
Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The frontier oil town of Freer, Texas, 1938.
Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Carl Pugh was the chief of police in Freer, Texas, a frontier oil town, 1938.
Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Carl Pugh was the chief of police in Freer, Texas, a frontier oil town, 1938.
Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The frontier oil town of Freer, Texas, 1938.
Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The frontier oil town of Freer, Texas, 1938.
Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The frontier oil town of Freer, Texas, 1938.
Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The frontier oil town of Freer, Texas, 1938.
Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The families of two oil workers shared this shack as their residence in the frontier oil town of Freer, Tex., 1938.
Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
A church in the frontier oil town of Freer, Texas, 1938.
Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The frontier oil town of Freer, Texas, 1938.
Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The frontier oil town of Freer, Texas, 1938.
Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
