by Bruce Wells | Jun 24, 2026 | Energy Education Resources
Volunteers are key to Oblong museum’s Illinois Basin exhibits and events.
Building a community oil museum is not for the faint of heart. “Money and volunteers, volunteers and money,” are the biggest challenges, according to John Larrabee, board president for the Illinois Oil Field Museum and Resource Center on the outskirts of his hometown of Oblong, Illinois.
The Illinois Oil Field Museum is located in Oblong, Illinois, on Highway 33, southeast of Effingham. First opened in 1961, the museum moved into a new building in 2001. Photos by Kristin L. Wells.
“The first thing you have to have is a goal and the determination to keep at it, no matter what. Don’t give up, whatever happens,” Larrabee explained in a 2004 interview with Kris Wells, American Oil & Gas Historical Society volunteer researcher and contributing editor. (more…)
by Bruce Wells | May 24, 2026 | Energy Education Resources
A 1928 experimental concrete reservoir for storing Permian Basin oil became a water park in 1958 — for one day.
Travelers on I-20 in West Texas should not miss the petroleum museum at Monahans southwest of Odessa and Midland. Not just a collection of Permian Basin artifacts, the Million Barrel Museum’s biggest attraction is a former experimental oil tank the size of three football fields.
The Permian Basin once was called a “petroleum graveyard” — until a series of oilfield discoveries beginning in 1920 brought exploration companies to the vast, arid region. Completed near Big Lake in 1923, the Santa Rita No. 1 well alone would endow the University of Texas with millions of dollars.
However, as the giant basin’s oilfield discoveries grew, the lack of infrastructure for storing and transporting growing volumes of oil proved to be an equally big problem. (more…)
by Bruce Wells | May 12, 2026 | Energy Education Resources
A remarkable collection of engines preserves petroleum history in Western Pennsylvania.
Vintage oilfield engine exhibits are part of an unusual Pennsylvania museum in the rustic hills of Pennsylvania near Little Sandy Creek, just off Colonel Drake Highway 36, about 10 miles northwest of Punxsutawney.
Indoor and outdoor displays of rare engines, many carefully restored and maintained by volunteers, educate visitors about the 19th-century evolution of internal combustion technologies that helped end the age of steam. (more…)
by Bruce Wells | May 6, 2026 | Energy Education Resources
Western Kansas museum preserves the history of a 1920s natural gas field — and vital source of helium.
A small museum in southwestern Kansas preserves the history of one of the largest natural gas fields in the world. The Stevens County Gas & Historical Museum in Hugoton opened in 1961 near a gas well drilled in 1945 and still producing.
Hugoton’s petroleum museum, founded by a group of dedicated volunteers led by Gladys Renfro, serves as a Kansas energy education center. Its exhibits are “a memento of the Hugoton gas field and the progressive development of Stevens County.”
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by Bruce Wells | May 4, 2026 | Energy Education Resources
Preserving Louisiana petroleum history at Caddo Lake.
A 1905 oil discovery at Caddo-Pines brought America’s rapidly growing petroleum industry to northwestern Louisiana. A state museum in appropriately named Oil City tells the story.
Originally the Caddo-Pine Island Oil and Historical Museum, in May 2004 the Louisiana State Oil and Gas Museum was dedicated as a state museum.
Drilling platforms constructed in 1911 by Gulf Refining Company produced oil from an oilfield beneath Caddo Lake, Louisiana. They were among America’s earliest “offshore” wells — but not the first.
Located about 20 miles north of Shreveport, the first public museum in Louisiana dedicated to the petroleum industry maintains an extensive local history library and collected photographic archives. Exterior exhibits include the former depot of the Kansas City Southern Railroad. (more…)
by Bruce Wells | Apr 20, 2026 | Energy Education Resources
Bartlesville oil museum closes. Woolaroc and Ponca City museums preserve Oklahoma exploration history.
As part of Oklahoma statehood centennial celebrations in 2007, ConocoPhillips opened two petroleum museums dedicated to preserving the state’s exploration and production history. In April 2025, the spun-off downstream company Phillips 66 closed the museum in Bartlesville, citing a decline in visitors after an earlier decision to require appointment-only visits.
Often staffed with volunteers like many other Oklahoma oil museums, the Conoco Museum in Ponca City and Phillips Petroleum Company museum in Bartlesville have featured interactive exhibits, oilfield artifacts, and community events along with K-12 education programs about the industry’s energy future.
Created in 2002 through the merger of Conoco and the Phillips Petroleum, ConocoPhillips reportedly spent $5 million on each museum for the 2007 centennial openings. In 2012, Phillips 66 became an independent company when ConocoPhillips spun off its refining, midstream and marketing businesses. Phillips 66 markets across the United States under the Phillips, Conoco and Unocal brands.
In 2025, the permanent closure of the Bartlesville Phillips Petroleum Company Museum (with some artifacts moving to the Frank Phillip Woolaroc Ranch) has left an uncertain future for the statehood centennial’s Conoco Museum, now requiring appointments to visit.
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