The Day a Generation Died

Newsman Walter Cronkite would, in his later years, recall it as one of the worst stories he ever covered. Morning dawned over New London on March 18, 1937, with clear skies and mild temperatures. Along Main Street, students made their way to school. Despite the pall of the Great Depression hanging over the nation, the future looked bright for the schoolchildren of Rusk County, thanks to a sea of oil and gas quivering below their feet.

Seven years earlier, thousands had celebrated as the earth shuddered and the Daisy Bradford No. 3 drilling rig shot a black fountain of oil into the sky. The town opened London Junior/Senior High School two years later, a showplace built on oil revenue. In 1934, the local football stadium became one of the first in Texas to get lights. But soon, the same congealed energy that made all that