Seminole Oil Boom
After early 1920s discoveries, Oklahoma’s giant oilfields revealed.
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 the state’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. (more…)
