Cushing, Oklahoma, may be a relatively small town, but what happens beneath and around it connects directly to the global oil market. In this episode of Red Dirt and Round Bales, Dave Deken traces Cushing’s petroleum story from Tom Slick’s 1912 discovery well through the explosive growth of the Cushing-Drumright field. Oil came out of the ground so quickly that moving it became nearly as important as producing it. Pipelines, refineries and massive storage facilities followed, creating infrastructure that survived long after the original oil boom faded. That network eventually gave Cushing another role: the physical delivery point for West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures. The episode is a reminder that Cushing’s lasting importance was not simply what came out of the ground, but its ability to connect oil producers, storage facilities, markets and prices.