Oil brings business. Oil puts plenty of money in their pockets. Mattie can remove it quickly and painlessly, and nobody ever complains.

She’s a boomtown girl.

Find her an oilfield.

Find her a town nearby.

And it won’t be long until she’s the richest woman in town.

Doesn’t look for oil.

Doesn’t drill for oil.

But she makes her money off the men who do.

They are lonely.

Some are outcasts.

When night comes, they are looking for a lady to hold

They are looking for love.

They are looking for a dance floor.

Mattie is building them one.

Hers is a place where you can love for a quarter a dance.

*

MATTIE CASTLEBURY DOESN’T ridicule Asa Borger. Unlike others, she does not believe that Borger is delusional. He predicts a town that will sink deep roots in the plains and maybe even surpass Amarillo in size and importance. He envisions a bright future. Mattie thinks he may be right. She has left one boomtown in Davenport, Oklahoma, and ridden into another, trying to determine just how rich, just how stable, just how important a lonesome city on the high plains can be.

She has seen Asa Borger’s advertisements. She’s familiar with his reputation as a town builder. He’s done it before. Can he do it again? If so, Mattie wants to make sure she’s in town early enough to establish her business on the ground floor and be around to grow as Borger grows.

Oil brings business. Oil puts plenty of money in their pockets. Mattie can remove it quickly and painlessly, and nobody ever complains. It’s quite a simple task to separate a lonely, hard-working man from his money. All it takes is music, the comforting arms of a lovely young lady, and an awkward dance step or two. She runs a dance hall, and she runs it right. She doesn’t need to act as the Mother Superior of a shady or lurid operation. Her girls may be dancers one night and married housewives the next. Her dance halls have an air of respectability. Girls love to work for Mattie. She doesn’t expect them to be ladies of the night. She doesn’t need them to be ladies of the night. She does quite well with fifteen cents a dance. All it takes is a lot of dancers, a lot of dances, and a lot of quarters.

Mattie arrives in February of 1926 and quickly wanders around Borger.

It doesn’t take her long.

Borger’s not yet a town.

But she does hear the hammers.

She smells the sawdust.

She feels the tension.

Mattie sees the promise.

The boys are hungry now.

But just give them time.

Won’t be long until they’re ready to dance.

All she needs is a few girls.

And they’re already on their way.

Please click HERE to find Borger: Last Dance at Sundown on Amazon.