Seminole Oil Boom
Giant oilfields brought great petroleum wealth to Oklahoma.
Many oil and natural gas discoveries followed the Indian Territory’s first oil well drilled at Bartlesville in 1897, and even more after statehood arrived a decade later. None of Oklahoma’s 1920s oilfields compares to the economic impact of the Greater Seminole Area 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.
More oilfield discoveries followed, including the Red Fork Gusher of 1901, which helped in making Tulsa “Oil Capital of the World.” The 1920 Burbank field in Osage County would prove to extend more than 33 square miles (see Million Dollar Auctioneer). But petroleum production from the Greater Seminole Area Field eclipsed them all. (more…)
