Giant oilfields bring Oklahoma petroleum boom in 1920s.
Many oil and natural gas discoveries followed the Indian Territory’s first oil well drilled at Bartlesville in 1897, and especially after statehood came a decade later. None of Oklahoma’s 1920s oilfields compared to the economic impact of the greater area Seminole oil boom.
Although oil from the 1897 discovery in Indian Territory could not get to refineries for two years (lacking transportation infrastructure), the first Oklahoma oil well brought a surge in exploratory drilling.
Other oilfield discoveries soon followed, including the Red Fork Gusher of 1901, which helped in Making Tulsa “Oil Capital of the World.” The Seminole oil boom eclipsed them all.
Prosperity brought traffic jams to Seminole, Oklahoma, in the mid-1920s when new oilfields “swung the United States’ oil inventory from scarcity to surplus.” Photo courtesy Oklahoma Historical Society.
In Seminole, the struggling farming region’s petroleum prosperity arrived on July 16, 1926, with a wildcat well southeast of Oklahoma City. The Fixico No. 1 well revealed the oil-rich Wilcox sands at about 4,075 feet deep. The new oilfield discovery launched a summer frenzy of drilling and production.
Seminole Area leads World
By 1935, the new oilfields around Seminole became the largest supplier of oil in the world. More than 60 petroleum reservoirs were found in 1,300 square miles — and seven were “giants,” each producing millions of barrels of oil.
Seismic technology first helped find oil on December 4, 1928, when it revealed details of the Viola limestone formation near Seminole, resulting the world’s first oil discovery in a geological structure that had been identified by reflection (learn more in Exploring Seismic Waves).
Meanwhile, petroleum production from greater Seminole area oilfields already were swinging United States oil reserves from scarcity to surplus.
“Oil workers working on lowered traveling block” at well in Seminole oilfield, August 1939. Photo by Russell Lee (1903-1986) courtesy Library of Congress.
Flowing at 6,120 barrels of oil a day, the Fixico discovery well of R.F. Garland and Independent Oil Company was among five Seminole-area oil reservoirs discovered by 1927.
The series of discoveries included strikes in the Hunton lime formation by Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company in March 1926, followed by a July discovery of Wilcox sand production by Amerada Petroleum Company nearby.
“In rapid succession came discoveries of the Searight, Earlsboro, Bowlegs and Little River reservoirs,” according to a 1977 granite monument near the entrance to Seminole Municipal Park. The discoveries brought 20,000 oilfield workers to Seminole County — and created several classic petroleum boom towns.
The prosperity of these discoveries transformed life in many central Oklahoma farming communities.
Closed in 2019, the Oklahoma Oil Museum in Seminole once included a volunteer-made diorama of small towns near the seven of Oklahoma’s 20 “giant” oilfields. Photo by Kris Wells.
Prior to the oil boom period, the greater Seminole area was one of the poorest economic areas in Oklahoma. The Seminoles were the smallest in numbers and the lowest on the economic scale of the Five Civilized Tribes.
“By the 1920s, farmers in Seminole County, like those elsewhere, were beginning to feel the pinch of hard times created by falling prices for farm produce. An advertisement of the First National Bank in the Seminole County News urged people to have clear heads, stout hearts and busy hands, and to remember that greater problems had been met and solved,” noted historian Louise Welsh in A History of the Greater Seminole Oil Field
“It was quite natural that, under such stress, the prospect of finding oil should occasion both excitement and hope, since the prospect of leasing his land might provide the necessary funds with which the hard-pressed farmer could pay off his mortgage,” Welsh reported.
Although the area’s first discovery came near Wewoka in 1923, and the Cromwell oilfield was developed in 1924, and leasing activity continued around Seminole, it was not until 1926 that the hope for a giant oilfield discovery was realized.
“It was the Independent Oil and Gas Company’s No. 1 Fixico, whose 6,120 barrels a day from the Wilcox created a real bonanza, that precipitated the Seminole boom,” Welsh explained. The Seminole County population increased from 23,808 in 1920 to 79,621 in 1930.
At its height, the Seminole City oilfield accounted for 2.6 percent of the world’s oil production, Welsh added, noting massive Oklahoma production glutted oil markets and resulted in a price collapse to as low as 15 cents per barrel. The oilfields were then placed under state control.
“Thus, the conservation movement, as far as the oil industry is concerned, started in Oklahoma and largely in the greater Seminole areas,” Welsh concluded. Dedicated volunteers operated the Oklahoma Oil Museum at 1800 Hwy. 9 West in Seminole.
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Recommended Reading: A History of the Greater Seminole Oil Field
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The American Oil & Gas Historical Society (AOGHS) preserves U.S. petroleum history. Please become an AOGHS annual supporter and help maintain this energy education website and expand historical research. For more information, contact bawells@aoghs.org. © 2024 Bruce A. Wells.
Citation Information – Article Title: “Seminole Oil Boom.” Authors: B.A. Wells and K.L. Wells. Website Name: American Oil & Gas Historical Society. URL: https://aoghs.org/petroleum-pioneers/seminole-oil-boom. Last Updated: July 8, 2024. Original Published Date: April 29, 2014.
