The town of Cushing, located in north central Oklahoma, bills itself as the Pipeline Crossroads of the World.   Visitors viewing the many tank farms located in the area will quickly realize the claim is true.  Serving as the major storage conduit for West Texas Sweet purchased through the New York Mercantile Exchange, its many giant oil tanks punctuate the area’s hilly terrain. 

The giant Cushing oil field, discovered in 1915 by legendary oil men C.B Shaffer and Tom Slick still ranks as one of the world’s largest, having produced nearly half a billion barrels.  A topographic check of the area reveals a broad closed structure, rising above central Oklahoma’s normal flatness.  Those familiar with Oklahoma’s Cimarron River know that it is anything but straight.  Near Cushing, it meanders like a coiling snake gone totally berserk.

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