The first bale of cotton processed in the 2019 fall harvest rolled off the cotton gin at the Co-Op in Burns Flat last week.
The gin in Burns Flat is the last operating cotton gin in Washita County. Last year the gin processed approximately 40,000 bales of cotton - roughly one million pounds, according to Co-Op board member Monte Nickel. He said there used to be gins in operation in Bessie and Cordell, as well as Burns Flat, but the turn-down of the cotton market and a disastrous infestation of boll weevils devastated the area’s cotton market and caused the Bessie and Cordell gins to close.