This Week in Petroleum History: April 21 – 27

April 21, 1967 – GM celebrates its 100 Millionth Car –

General Motors celebrated its 100 millionth American-made car (a two-door Chevrolet Caprice). Founded in 1908 by William Durant, the Flint, Michigan, company began as a manufacturer of horse-drawn carriages. After leaving GM, Durant and partner Louis Chevrolet founded the Chevrolet Motor Company in 1911, which became part of GM five years later.

After World War II, GM was the first American corporation to pay more than $1 billion in taxes, according to the Detroit Historical Society, which also notes the company declared bankruptcy in 2009 and emerged less than 40 days later after a federal bailout that saved more than a million jobs.

April 22, 1920 – Natural Gas Well leads Arkansas Discoveries

Although natural gas was first discovered in 1887 at Fort Smith, the first commercial production began in southern Arkansas with a well completed southeast of El Dorado. Drilled to a depth of almost 2,250 feet, the well produced up to 60 million cubic feet of natural gas a day and showed signs of oil from the Nacatoch formation sandstone. The first Arkansas oil wells arrived one year later at El Dorado and at Smackover in 1922.

April 22, 1926 – Osage Oil Lease Auctioneer Statue dedicated

A statue commemorating the friendship between oil and gas lease auctioneer Colonel E.E. Walters and Osage Indian Chief Baconrind (phonetically, Wah-she-hah) was dedicated in Walters’ hometown of Skedee, Oklahoma. Beginning in 1912, Colonel Elmer Ellsworth Walters (his real name) and the popular Chief of the Osage Nation raised millions of dollars for the tribe from mineral lease sales.

Oil and gas history includes a Skedee, Oklahoma, 1926 statue of a famed auctioneer and Osage chief

The town of Skedee, Oklahoma, has declined in population, but its 1926 statue of a famed auctioneer and Osage chief remains. Photo by Bruce Wells.

The auctions took place beneath an elm tree at the Tribal Council House in Pawhuska, where crowds gathered to witness bidding from Frank Phillips, E.W. Marland and William Skelly. The Skedee unveiling revealed “painted bronze” statues of Walters and Chief Baconrind shaking hands on a sandstone monument’s base.

Learn more in Million Dollar Auctioneer.

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April 22, 1930 – Marland unveils Pioneer Woman

One block from the Marland Mansion in Ponca City, Ernest Whitworth “E.W.” Marland unveiled the Pioneer Woman statue, his gift to the state to honor the role of women who settled there. A Pioneer Woman Museum opened nearby in 1958. “Marland invited sculptors to submit competitive designs in the form of small models,” notes the Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS).

A bonneted mother strides forward, one hand holding a bible, the other the hand a child. At right is the 2024-2025 SAAM exhibit of model.

Thousands gathered in Ponca City for the 1930 unveiling of the Pioneer Woman, a 17-foot bronze stature commissioned by Marland Oil President E.W. Marland. A 1968 bronze cast of the winning model is on exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum until September 14, 2025.

A dozen models were exhibited across the country and after 750,000 votes, British-born American sculptor Bryant Baker won, and a 17-foot bronze statue was erected for $300,000. The winning model, cast in bronze by the artist in 1968, was given to the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM). Twelve competing models have been preserved at the Woolaroc Ranch, established by Marland’s friend and rival Frank Phillip.

Marland founded Marland Oil in Ponca City in 1917 after losing a fortune in the Pennsylvania oilfields during the panic of 1907. He was among the earliest to use seismography and core drilling for petroleum exploration.

April 22, 1964 – Sinclair Dinoland returns to New York World’s Fair

Continuing its successful marketing campaign begun in the 1930s, Sinclair Oil opened a Dinoland pavilion at the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair. The exhibition of giant, fiberglass dinosaurs proved a hit with the 50 million people attending the fair.

New York spectators marveled at a tugboat pushing a barge of dinosaurs on the Hudson River in 1964.

“For the first time in 70 million years a herd of dinosaurs will travel down the Hudson River this month,” noted Popular Science in September 1963.

The first Sinclair Oil Dinoland, which attracted crowds to the Texas Centennial Exposition in 1936, was expanded for the 1939-1940 New York World’s Fair. Following the 1964-1965 exhibition and to the delight of children in 25 states, 70-foot green “Dino” and eight more dinosaurs traveled to make stops at shopping centers.

April 23, 1878 – Oil Exchange Building opened in Pennsylvania

The Oil Exchange of Oil City, Pennsylvania, opened a new, $100,000 brick building on Seneca Street. Independent producers began meeting there to trade oil and pipeline certificates. They had earlier gathered at local hotels or along Oil City’s Centre Street, then known as the “Curbside Exchange.”

Color postcard of the exterior of the Oil City, Pennsylvania, oil exchange.

By 1877, Pennsylvania oil companies had created the third-largest financial exchange of any kind in America, behind only New York and San Francisco.

Before the 1870s, most Pennsylvania oil buyers had taken on-site delivery of oil in wooden barrels they provided themselves. A rapidly growing oil pipeline infrastructure created the need for a place to trade certificates as oil commerce expanded. The Standard Oil Company of New Jersey would bring an end to Pennsylvania’s highly speculative oil-trading markets.

Learn more in End of Oil Exchanges.

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April 23, 1907 – Birthday of Shell

A telegram announced the merger of Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and Shell Transport and Trading Company to form the Royal Dutch Shell Group. Shell Transport and Trading was an 1897 British company founded by Sir Marcus Samuel for exporting “Shell” kerosene refined near Texas oilfields. Its competitor Royal Dutch had begun to construct its own tankers as competition with Standard Oil intensified.

This April 23, 1907, telegraph announced Royal Dutch Shell Group and two early shell logos.

Sir Marcus Samuel received a telegram confirming the merger of his company to create of Royal Dutch Shell. His transport company’s 1900 logo evolved from a mussel shell to a scallop by 1909. The Shell yellow and red scallop shell logo began as a black and white mussel shell trademarked in 1900.

Samuel’s company marketed its kerosene in red cans to “stand out against Standard Oil’s blue when the companies were competing back at the end of the 19th Century,” according to Shell. The yellow and red scallop shell logo began as a black and white mussel shell trademarked in 1900; the telegram’s 1907 date is celebrated as the birthday of Royal Dutch Shell Group.

April 24, 1911 – Magnolia Petroleum founded

The Magnolia Petroleum Company was founded as an unincorporated joint-stock association — a consolidation of several companies, the first of which began in 1898 as a small refinery in Corsicana during the first Texas oil boom.

Magnolia Petroleum logo with flower blossom and "Magnolene Motor Oils for sale here."

Magnolia Petroleum would merge with Socony Mobil Oil in the 1930s and replace its flower with the “Flying Pegasus” logo.

As Magnolia Petroleum established service stations in southwestern states, Standard Oil Company of New York (Socony) began acquiring the company in 1925 before merging with the Vacuum Oil Company in 1931.

The new company, Socony-Vacuum Oil — the future Mobil Oil — included stations in 20 states operated by Magnolia Petroleum, headquartered in an early Dallas skyscraper. Magnolia adopted the Socony-Vacuum Oil Pegasus logo, which began rotating atop the building in 1934.

April 24, 1917 – Maybell trademarks “Lash-Brow-Ine”

Tom Lyle Williams, doing business in Chicago as Maybell Laboratories, trademarked the name Lash-Brow-Ine as mascara and “preparation for stimulating the growth of eyebrows and eyelashes.” Two years earlier, Williams had watched his sister Mabel perform what she called “a secret of the harem,” mixing petroleum jelly with coal dust and applying it to her eyelashes.

A circa 1930 Maybelline mascara kit and small eyelash brush.

Toothpicks were once used to mix lamp black with Vaseline, but by the 1930s Maybelline mascara was available at local five-and-dime stores. Photo courtesy Sharrie Williams.

The mascara’s key ingredient, Vaseline, had been patented in 1872 by Robert Chesebrough, a young chemist in Brooklyn, New York (see The Crude Story of Mabel’s Eyelashes). Williams began selling tins of Mabel’s mixture by mail-order catalog, calling it “lash-brow-ine.” With sales exceeding $100,000 by 1920, Williams renamed the mascara Maybelline in honor of his sister, who worked with him in his Chicago office.

April 25, 1865 – Civil War Veteran patents Well Torpedo

Civil War veteran Col. Edward A.L. Roberts of New York City received the first of his many patents for an “Improvement in Exploding Torpedoes in Artesian Wells.” The invention used controlled downhole explosions “to fracture oil-bearing formations and increase oil production.”

An oil and gas history marker notes the 1865 first demonstration of the invention of Union Col. E.A.L. Roberts.

A Pennsylvania historical marker notes the 1865 first demonstration of the invention of Union Col. E.A.L. Roberts.

The Roberts torpedoes were filled with gunpowder, lowered into wells, and ignited by a weight dropped along a suspension wire to percussion caps. In later models, nitroglycerin replaced gunpowder. Before the well torpedo’s invention, many early wells in the new oil regions of Pennsylvania, New York, and West Virginia often produced limited amounts of oil.

With its exclusive patent licenses, the Roberts Petroleum Torpedo Company charged up to $200 per torpedo “shoot” and a one-fifteenth royalty. Seeking to avoid the expense, unlicensed practitioners operated at night with their own explosive devices, reportedly leading to the term “moonlighter.”

Learn more in Shooters – A “Fracking” History.

April 26, 1947 – Oil Industry promoted on Radio

For the first time since its establishment in 1919, the American Petroleum Institute launched a national advertising campaign. “The theme of the drive is that the petroleum industry is a modern and progressive one, and is now turning out the best products in its history,” noted The Billboard

The Billboard magazine 1919 story about oil and gas industry radio advertising of API.

Founded in 1919 in New York City, API moved its headquarters to the nation’s capital in 1929.

“Radio this week struck real pay dirt as a ‘Gusher’ will come mainly from expansion of current air time on spot local or regional levels by the thousands of petroleum and related corporations,” proclaimed the weekly publication. API today is a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying organization representing major petroleum companies. It issues industrywide recommended practices, “to promote the use of safe equipment and proven engineering.”

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April 27, 1966 – Ariel Corporation founded

After receiving a degree in mechanical engineering in 1954, former eighth-grade teacher Jim Buchwald founded Ariel Corporation in Mount Vernon, Ohio. “With little money to pay for a facility to house the tools, a room in the basement of the Buchwald family home is cleaned up,” according to the Ariel website.

Buchwald bought a lathe, a small hand-cranked rotary table and a vertical drill for manufacturing valves. “This room becomes the first Ariel machine shop, with an adjoining room functioning as Ariel’s first official engineering department.”

Jim Buchwald with his Ariel Company prototype compressor.

Jim Buchwald with Ariel’s prototype compressor after it has completed a 10-hour run test. Photo courtesy Ariel.

By 1968, Buchwald had built a prototype gas compressor that ran at the unprecedented speed of 1,800 RPM. His Ohio machine shop soon transitioned into a manufacturing facility, and Buchwald named the company after his favorite 1948 Ariel motorcycle. His company has become one of the world’s largest manufacturers of reciprocating gas compressors.

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Recommended Reading: Down the Asphalt Path: The Automobile and the American City (1994); The Discovery of Oil in South Arkansas, 1920-1924 (1974); The Osage Oil Boom (1989); The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power (1991); Historic Photos of Texas Oil (2012); The Maybelline Story: And the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It (2010); The Boom: How Fracking Ignited the American Energy Revolution and Changed the World (2015); The Seven Sisters: The great oil companies & the world (1975); Oil and Gas Pipeline Fundamentals (1993). Your Amazon purchase benefits the American Oil & Gas Historical Society. As an Amazon Associate, AOGHS earns a commission from qualifying purchases.

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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. Copyright © 2025 Bruce A. Wells. All rights reserved.

Dinosaur Fever – Sinclair’s Icon

Marketing icon “Dino” and friends introduced children to wonders of the Mesozoic era courtesy of Sinclair Oil.

 

Harry Ford Sinclair established his petroleum company in 1916, making it one of the oldest continuous names in the U.S. energy  industry. Appearing among other Sinclair Oil Company dinosaurs during the 1933-1934 World’s Fair in Chicago, “Dino” quickly became a marketing icon whose popularity – and educational value – with children remains today.

With $50 million in assets, Harry Ford Sinclair borrowed another $20 million and formed Sinclair Oil & Refining Corporation on May 1, 1916.  He brought together a collection of several depressed oil properties, five small refineries and many untested leases — all acquired at bargain prices.

After the New York World's Fair ended in 1965, traveling Sinclair dinosaurs like this visited shopping malls and Sinclair gas stations.

After the New York World Fair ended in 1965, this 70-foot “Dino” (an Apatosaurus) and other Sinclair Oil Dinoland exhibits  traveled more 10,000 miles, stopping at shopping centers and Sinclair service stations.

After the New York World’s Fair concluded in 1965, “Dino” and a caravan of Dinoland exhibits left Queens to begin a three-year tour, travelling more than 10,000 miles through 25 states to visit suburban shopping center parking lots — and Sinclair stations.

During its first 14 months of operations, Sinclair’s New York-based company produced six million barrels of oil for a net income of almost $9 million. The company’s refining capacity grew from 45,000 barrels of oil a day in 1920 to 100,000 barrels of oil a day in 1926. Refining capacity reached 150,000 barrels of oil per day in 1932.

The prospering producing and refining company began using an Apatosaurus (then called a Brontosaurus) in its advertising, sales promotions and product labels in 1930. Children loved it.

Chicago World’s Fair

Excited crowds gathered at Sinclair Oil Company dinosaurs exhibit during the Century of Progress International Exposition, also known as the Chicago World’s Fair, from May 27, 1933, to October 31, 1934.

Sinclair Oil “Brontosaurus” debut in Chicago as exhibit during the 1933-1934 “Century of Progress” World’s Fair.

The first Sinclair Oil “Brontosaurus” trademark made its debut in Chicago as an exhibit during the 1933-1934 “Century of Progress” World’s Fair.

As Sinclair’s dinosaur exhibit attracted Depression Era crowds. the company published a special edition newspaper, Big News, promoting the company’s diverse array of dinosaurs — and petroleum products.

Sinclair Oil Company dinosaurs promoted in company newspaper at Chicago World's Fair.

“Sinclair uses dinosaurs in its motor oil adverting to impress on your mind the tremendous age of the crude oils from which Sinclair Motor Oils are made,” proclaimed one Big News article.

The Sinclair dinosaur exhibit drew large crowds once again at the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition. Four years later, even more visitors marveled at an improved 70-foot dinosaur in Sinclair’s “Dinoland Pavilion” at the 1939-1940 New York World’s Fair.

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Sinclair’s green giant and his accompanying cast of Jurassic buddies, including Triceratops, Stegosaurus, a duck-billed Hadrosaurus, and a 20-foot-tall Tyrannosaurus Rex – were again a success, especially among young people.

Sinclair gas station illustration on free Pennsylvania map.

Sinclair’s first super-fuel is marketed in 1926. The “HC” initials stand for “Houston Concentrate,” but some advertising men prefer the term “High Compression.”

Although it was the first U.S. exposition to be based on the future — “the world of tomorrow” — the Sinclair dinosaurs remained a popular attraction among other innovative exhibits. The Westinghouse Company featured “Electro the Moto-Man,” a seven-foot robot that talked and smoked cigarettes.

“Dino” and friends would return to New York City with even greater acclaim in 1964. But it was soon after the Chicago World’s Fair that the oil company recorded its most successful single promotion.

Sinclair Dinosaurs Stamps

In 1935, Sinclair Oil published dinosaur stamps and a  stamp album that could be filled only with colored dinosaur stamps — issued one at a time weekly at Sinclair service stations.

The first printing of Sinclair’s dinosaur stamp albums — distributed through its dealers within 48 hours after a single network radio broadcast of the offer — would astound marketing professionals.

Cover of Sinclair dinosaur stamp album.

In 1935, Sinclair gas stations offered dinosaur stamp albums – and eventually handed out four million albums and 48 million stamps.

“The final totals were 4 million albums and 48 million stamps,” the company  noted about its campaign. “Dino” surpassed the other Sinclair Oil Company dinosaurs in becoming an icon of successful petroleum marketing wherever it went.

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Refurbished, the 70-foot-long fiberglass green giant and his eight companions — including a large, 45-foot Tyrannosaurus Rex — would return to New York for another world’s fair in 1964-1965.

Illustration of Sinclair Oil Company's Dinoland" at 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair.

Fifty million New York City visitors attend the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair — with the Sinclair Corporation’s “Dinoland” exhibition among the most popular. Image courtsey CardCow.com.

In early 1964, spectators along the Hudson River were amazed to see a barge crowded with an improved Dino and his kin floating downriver. The super-sized reptiles were again bound for a New York World’s Fair. One, a Triceratops, was delivered by helicopter.

New York World’s Fair

“For the first time in 70 million years a herd of dinosaurs will travel down the Hudson River this month,” noted the September 1963 issue of Popular Science.

A Hudson River tugboat pushes a barge with six Sinclair dinosaurs in 1964.

New York spectators marveled at a tugboat pushing a barge of dinosaurs on the Hudson River in 1964.

“Faithfully sculptured and big as life,” noted the magazine, the fiberglass dinosaurs traveled by barge from the Catskill Mountains studio of animal sculptor Louis Paul Jonas, his 18 assistants and paleontologist advisers. 

Dismantling of "the great statue that stood in the Sinclair Pavilion of the New York World's Fair, 1965."

Dismantling of “the great statue that stood in the Sinclair Pavilion of the New York World’s Fair, 1965.” Photo by Robert Walker, the New York Times Archives.

The nine dinosaurs took two months and $250,000 to complete by opening day, April 22, 1964. By the end of the World’s Fair, about 50 million visitors had marvelled at Sinclair’s “Dinoland” exhibit. Dino’s travels did not end when the fair closed in October 1965.

Sincalair Dinoland on exhibitin 1965 at Southdale Mall in Edina, Minnesota, where Andy and Doug Ward were photographed by their father David in front of Triceratops. Photo courtesy Doug Ward.

In July 1966, the Sinclair Dinoland exhibit visited Southdale Mall in Edina, Minnesota, where Andy and Doug Ward were photographed by their father David in front of Triceratops. Photo courtesy Doug Ward.

After being disassembled and configured for an extended road trip, Dino began visiting shopping centers and other venues where crowds of children were introduced to the wonders of prehistory, courtesy of Sinclair.

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Today, many fair visitors fondly remember another attraction of Sinclair’s Dinoland popular Pavilion – “Mold-A-Rama” machines that dispensed warm, plastic dinosaurs for 25 cents.

Poster promoting Sinclair Oil Company dinosaurs at 1965 World's Fair Dinoland.

One of the New York World’s Fair dinosaurs would end up in Kansas.

After traveling more 10,000 miles through 25 states and 38 major cities, Dino retired to Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose, Texas, about 50 miles southwest of Fort Worth. He can still be seen there today. The Texas park contains some of the best preserved dinosaur tracks in the world.

Sinclair Oil Company's 70-foot Apatosaurus on display at Dinosaur Valley State Park in Texas.

Sinclair Oil Company’s 70-foot Apatosaurus (and a 45-foot Tyrannosaurus Rex) are displayed in Dinosaur Valley State Park, 50 miles southwest of Fort Worth, Texas. Photo courtesy Dinosaur Valley State Park.

“There are two fiberglass models,” the park notes, “a 70-foot Apatosaurus and a 45-foot Tyrannosaurus Rex. They were built, under commission of the Sinclair Oil Company, for New York World’s Fair Dinosaur Exhibit of 1964 – 1965.”

Corythosaurus in Kansas

Although Sinclair was born in Benwood, West Virginia, today a Wheeling suburb, he grew up in Independence, Kansas. The Historical Museum of Independence educates visitors with an Oil Room exhibiting Sinclair’s extensive Mid-Continent oilfield production and refining heritage.

Corythosaurus pictured on a Sinclair Oil Company dinosaur stamp.

Sinclair Oil Corporation distributed 48 million dinosaur stamps in a highly successful marketing campaign.

On display in a nearby public park is Corythosaurus — one the dinosaurs from Sinclair’s “Dinoland” exhibit at the New York World’s Fair. The museum’s Old Post Office building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

Petroleum history is important. Support link for AOGHS.

“The museum’s permanent exhibits in 22 rooms tell stories of the early settlers’ lifestyle; the history of the oil industry; some of the Indian Culture collection and various historical artifacts,” explains the Historical Museum of Independence.

Sinclair dinosaur made in a "Mold-A-Rama" machine for 25 cents.

Young New Work World’s Fair visitors recall Sinclair’s “Mold-A-Rama” machine that made a souvenir dinosaur for 25 cents. “See it formed right before your very eyes!” Two sides of a mold came together, producing a still warm plastic dinosaur.

Although later a respected American industrialist, Harry Sinclair was implicated in the Teapot Dome Scandal. Albert Fall, appointed Interior Secretary in 1921 by President Warren G. Harding, was found guilty of accepting a bribe in 1929 — the first cabinet member to be convicted of a felony.

With full control of the Naval Petroleum Reserves, Fall had awarded noncompetitive leases to Sinclair’s Mammoth Oil Company for Teapot Dome oil reserves. Harry Sinclair was acquitted of giving a bribe, but served six-and-a-half months in prison for contempt of court and the U.S. Senate. He died on November 10, 1956. 

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Recommended Reading: The 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair, Images of America (2004); The Exciting World of Dinosaurs, Sinclair Dinoland, New York World’s Fair 1964-65 (souvenir booklet); Teapot Dome Scandal (2009). Your Amazon purchase benefits the American Oil & Gas Historical Society. As an Amazon Associate, AOGHS earns a commission from qualifying purchases.

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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. © 2025 Bruce A. Wells. All rights reserved.

Citation Information – Article Title: “Dinosaur Fever – Sinclair’s Icon.” Authors: B.A. Wells and K.L. Wells. Website Name: American Oil & Gas Historical Society. URL: https://aoghs.org/oil-almanac/sinclair-dinosaur. Last Updated: May 22, 2024. Original Published Date: January 27, 2010.

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