Why did Prosperity become a ghost town?Prosperity, Oklahoma: 4,000 people in 1924, none by 1937
Prosperity, OklahomaGhost Town Detective
In 1924, Prosperity had 4,000 people. By 1937 it had none. Now only ghosts remain, and the loudest one says it was a curse. Search the town, read what people left behind, and find out what really happened.
Best with sound on. Works projected for a whole class or on one device per pair.
Case board
Every source you find lands on this timeline by its date.
Your evidence, in order
Teacher notes
Students investigate a fictional Oklahoma oil boomtown, read sixteen short primary sources, and argue their explanation against a ghost who has a reason to mislead them.
What students practice
Sourcing: who made this, when, and why? Gus's newspaper says one thing in public and another in private.
Corroboration: one claim from one scared fifteen-year-old is a rumor, not evidence.
Chronological reasoning: the timeline shows the town was emptying two years before the fire.
Causation: separating a root cause from its effects and from the finishing blow.
Time and setup
25 to 35 minutes of play, plus 10 to 15 minutes of debrief.
Whole class: project it and let the class vote on which site to search and which source to play against Gus.
Pairs: one device per pair works best. One reads aloud, one keeps the case notes.
Reading level is about grade 6. For younger students, read the sources aloud.
Nothing is saved between sessions, and nothing leaves the browser. Students can print their final finding.
How it avoids being a quiz
There is no single correct answer and no locked doors. Students choose and rank up to three causes, attach their own evidence, and then defend the case when Gus objects. Several rankings can earn top marks. The feedback rates the quality of the evidence, not whether students picked a magic option.
Debrief questions
Which source did you trust most, and which least? What made the difference?
Gus and Timmy both shaped what the town believed. How does a rumor end up treated as history?
Was the oil running out the cause, or a cause? What evidence would you need to tell the difference?
The town blamed Hattie Greer, the person who saw the trouble coming. Where else in history has someone been blamed for a problem they warned about?
Oklahoma has many towns that boomed with oil or a railroad and faded when one of them left. Pick one near you. What sources would you look for to investigate it?
A note on accuracy
Prosperity, its people, and its documents are invented. The pattern is real: oil boomtowns across Oklahoma rose fast in the 1910s and 1920s, lost workers to newer fields, lost rail service when freight dried up, and were hit again by bank failures and the Dust Bowl. Using a fictional town lets students argue freely without treating real people's tragedies as a game.