by Bruce Wells | Jun 20, 2025 | Petroleum Pioneers
Pennsylvania wildcatters discovered an oilfield in 1901 near Tulsa in the Creek Nation, Indian Territory.
In 1901, six years before Oklahoma statehood, discovery of the Red Fork oilfield south of Tulsa began the town’s journey to becoming the “Oil Capital of the World.” Discovery of the giant Glenn Pool in 1905 helped.
Attracted to Indian Territory following an 1897 discovery at Bartlesville (see First Oklahoma Oil Well) two experienced drillers from the Pennsylvania fields found oil in the Creek Indian Nation on June 25, 1901. They drilled using steam boilers powering cable-tool derricks, the technology used to drill the first U.S. oil well in 1859 along Oil Creek in Titusville, Pennsylvania.

Dedicated during the 2007 Oklahoma centennial, a circa 1950s derrick commemorates the June 25, 1901, Red Fork oilfield discovery well. Photo courtesy Route 66 Historic Village.
After leasing thousands of acres in the Creek Nation, John S. Wick and Jesse A. Heydrick spudded their remote wildcat well near the village of Red Fork, across the Arkansas River from Tulsa. The attempt to find oil was not easy for the Pennsylvanians.
At the time, “Oklahoma Indian lands were in the process of being transferred from communal tribal ownership to individual tribal member holdings,” noted Bobby D. Weaver in a 2010 article for the Oklahoma Historical Society.

“This process, which made legal access to Indian property very uncertain, kept most oilmen away from areas under Indian control,” Weaver added. The well was almost never drilled when the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway station agent at Red Fork, “refused to accept a draft on their Pennsylvania backers to release their drilling equipment.”
Creek Land lease
The exploratory well was saved by a loan from two local doctors, John C. W. Bland and Fred S. Clinton. Drilling began at Red Fork on the tribal allotment of Sue A. Bland, a Creek citizen and wife of Dr. Bland.

Oil and natural gas exploration, production and service companies rushed to open offices in Tulsa following the 1901 oilfield discovery — and another in 1905.
Although the Sue A. Bland No. 1 well erupted an oil geyser high into the air, the discovery soon settled into production of just 10 barrels of oil a day from a depth of 537 feet. Despite the low production, the Oklahoma Territory well attracted a lot of national attention, drawing large numbers of exploration companies to the Tulsa area.
The Tulsa Democrat newspaper exclaimed, “Geyser of Oil Spouts at Red Fork” and “Oil Well Gusher Fifteen Feet High.” Within a week, Red Fork – once a quiet town of 75 people – was overrun by people clamoring for leases.

Tulsa County’s 1901 oilfield discovery was followed in 1905 by a well drilled deeper than the Red Fork production sands to reveal the far bigger Glenn Pool field (above in 1909). Photo courtesy Tulsa Historical Society & Museum.
Many of the newcomers settled in Tulsa, which in 1904 constructed its first bridge across the Arkansas River to accommodate wagonloads of oilfield workers and equipment.
“The Red Fork discovery never produced a great amount of oil, with most of the wells being in the fifty-barrel-per-day range, but it did produce excitement and drilling activity,” concluded Weaver.

“The discovery also prompted Tulsa citizens to begin a strong promotional campaign, with the result that by 1904 a much-needed bridge had been built across the Arkansas River,” he added. “This gave Tulsa access to the Red Fork Field and beyond and started that community on the road to becoming the predominant oil city in Oklahoma.”
The city’s petroleum industry future was assured in 1905 when a well drilled deeper than the Red Fork production sands revealed a truly massive oilfield. The Glenn Pool’s production far exceeded Tulsa County’s earlier Red Fork discovery.
Learn more in Making Tulsa the Oil Capital.
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Recommended Reading: Tulsa Oil Capital of the World, Images of America
(2004); The Oklahoma Petroleum Industry
(1980); Oil in Oklahoma
(1976). 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 © 2024 Bruce A. Wells. All rights reserved.
Citation Information: Article Title: “Red Fork Gusher.” Authors: B.A. Wells and K.L. Wells. Website Name: American Oil & Gas Historical Society. URL: https://aoghs.org/petroleum-pioneers/oklahoma-red-fork-oilfield. Last Updated: June 21, 2025. Original Published Date: June 23, 2014.
by Bruce Wells | Jun 19, 2025 | Petroleum Pioneers
Cemetery generated royalty checks to next-of-kin when oil was drawn from beneath family plots.
In the summer of 1921, the Signal Hill oil discovery would help make California the source of one-quarter of the world’s entire oil output. Soon known as “Porcupine Hill,” the town’s Long Beach oilfield produced about 260,000 barrels of oil a day by 1923.
The Alamitos No. 1 well, drilled on a remote hilltop south of Los Angeles, erupted a column of “black gold” on June 23, 1921. Natural gas pressure was so great that the oil geyser climbed 114 feet into the air.

After the June 1921 oilfield discovery, Signal Hill had so many derricks that people called it Porcupine Hill. Circa 1935 postcard courtesy Boston Public Library, Digital Commonwealth.
The oilfield discovery well, which produced almost 600 barrels a day, would eventually produce 700,000 barrels of oil. Signal Hill incorporated three years after its Alamitos discovery well made headlines.

In 1923, Signal Hill’s petroleum field produced more than 68 million barrels of oil. The community of Signal Hill later became one of the first U.S. cities to be surrounded by another city, Long Beach.

Signal Hill, a residential area before the 1921 discovery of the Long Beach oilfield, became covered in derricks. “Today you can see wonderful commemorative art displays of this era throughout the lush parks and walkways of Signal Hill,” notes a local newspaper.
By the 2000s, more than one billion barrels of oil were pumped from the Long Beach oilfield since the original 1921 strike. “Signal Hill is the scene of feverish activity, of an endless caravan of automobiles coming and going, of hustle and bustle, of a glow of optimism,” reported California Oil World.

Signal Hill circa 1930 — at the corner of 1st Street and Belmont Street. Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Museum of Natural History.
“Derricks are being erected as fast as timber reaches the ground,” the magazine adds. “New companies are coming in overnight. Every available piece of acreage on and about Signal Hill is being signed up.”

Signal Hill helped make California the source of one-quarter of the world’s oil. “Porcupine Hill” and the Long Beach field produced 260,000 barrels of oil a day by 1923.
Within a year, Signal Hill — before and after a residential area — will have 108 wells, producing 14,000 barrels of oil a day. There were so many derricks, people started calling it Porcupine Hill. “Derricks are so close that on Willow Street, Sunnyside Cemetery graves generated royalty checks to next-of-kin when oil was drawn from beneath family plots,” noted one historian.

Derricks were so close to one cemetery that graves “generated royalty checks to next-of-kin when oil was drawn from beneath family plots.” By 1923, production would reach 259,000 barrels per day from nearly 300 wells. Photo is part of a panorama in the Library of Congress.
Dave Summers explained in his 2011 article, “The Oil Beneath California,” that when oilfields around Los Angeles began to develop, “Californian production became a significant player on the national stage.” The OilPrice.com article continued:
By 1923 it was producing some 259,000 barrels per day from some 300 wells, in comparison with Huntington Beach, which was then at 113,000 barrels per day and Santa Fe Springs at 32,000 barrels per day… And, in a foreboding of the future problems of overproduction, this was the first year in a decade that supply exceeded demand.
Shell Oil Geologists
Signal Hill oil potential had drawn wildcatters south of Los Angeles since 1917 but with no success. Two Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company geologists and a driller persevered.

“This was a great exploit and economic risk for the time. Shell Oil Company had just lost $3 million at a failed drilling site in Ventura, five years before,” reported a Long Beach newspaper.

A 1954 photograph of the Alamitos No. 1 well — and the monument dedicated on May 3, 1952, “as a tribute to the petroleum pioneers for their success here…”
Although another “dry hole” would be expensive, Shell geologists Frank Hayes and Alvin Theodore Schwennesen spudded their well in March 1921. Driller O.P. “Happy” Yowells believed oil lay deeper than earlier “dusters” had attempted to reach.
By summer the steam-powered cable tool rig had Yowells close to making oilfield history. On June 23, 1921, at a depth of 3,114 feet, his wildcat well for Shell Oil erupted, revealing a petroleum reserve that extended to nearby Long Beach.
According to the Paleontological Research Institution, Signal Hill became the biggest oil field the already productive Southern California region had ever seen. This made California, “the nation’s number-one producing state, and in 1923, California was the source of one-quarter of the world’s entire output of oil!”
Decades before Signal Hill, another giant southern California oilfield had been discovered in 1892. A struggling prospector drilled into tar seeps he found near present-day Dodger Stadium (see Discovering Los Angeles Oilfields).
Signal Hill Oil Park
Today, Signal Hill’s Discovery Well Park includes a community center to educate the public. Historic photos and descriptions can be found at six viewpoints along the Panorama Promenade. There are producing oil wells throughout the hill — with the historic “Discovery Well, Alamitos Number 1” at the corner of Temple Avenue and East Hill Street.
A monument dedicated on May 3, 1952, serves “as a tribute to the petroleum pioneers for their success here, a success which has, by aiding in the growth and expansion of the petroleum industry, contributed so much to the welfare of mankind.”

Visitors to the area can see “wonderful commemorative art displays of this era throughout the lush parks and walkways of Signal Hill,” reported the Long Beach Beachcomber. Dedicated on September 30, 2006, the statue “Tribute to the Roughnecks” can be found on Skyline Drive.

“Tribute to the Roughnecks” by Cindy Jackson stands atop Signal Hill. Long Beach is in the distance. Signal Hill Petroleum Chairman Jerry Barto and Shell Oil employee Bruce Kerr are depicted in bronze.
The first California oil wells were drilled near oil seeps in the northern part of the state around the time of the Civil War. These Pico Canyon wells produced limited amounts of crude oil, but there was no market for the oil. Larger oilfields would be revealed in the early 1890s about 35 miles to the south.

Earlier explorers noted evidence of California’s petroleum fields by the large number of oil seeps, both onshore and offshore. California’s first commercial oil well in 1876 was drilled in Pica Canyon, well known for its asphalt seeps.
Between 1913 and 1923 Hollywood used the derricks on Signal Hill in movies starring Buster Keaton and Fatty Arbuckle. In 1957, what many consider the world’s first “all jazz” radio station, KNOB (now KLAX), first transmitted from a small studio on top of the historic oil hill.
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Recommended Reading: Signal Hill, California, Images of America
(2006); Huntington Beach, California, Postcard History Series
(2009); Black Gold in California: The Story of California Petroleum Industry
(2016). 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.
Citation Information – Article Title: “Signal Hill Oil Boom.” Authors: B.A. Wells and K.L. Wells. Website Name: American Oil & Gas Historical Society. URL: https://aoghs.org/petroleum-pioneers/signal-hill-oil/. Last Updated: June 18, 2025. Original Published Date: April 29, 2013.
by Bruce Wells | Jun 10, 2025 | Petroleum Pioneers
From 1955 to 2019 and returning in June 2025, the Chief Roughneck Award recognizes one individual whose accomplishments and character represented the highest ideals of the U.S. oil and natural gas industry. For many decades, the annual recognition ceremony of independent producers — wildcatters — has included an iconic advertising character of a tubular goods manufacturer.
(more…)
by Bruce Wells | Jun 6, 2025 | Petroleum Pioneers
Giant oilfield discovery in 1928 at Hobbs launched the New Mexico petroleum industry.
“It was desolate country – sand, mesquite, bear grass and jack rabbits. Hobbs was a store, a small school, a windmill, and a couple of trees.” — New Mexico roughneck.
Although the Hobbs discovery came six years after the first oil production (seven years after the first natural gas well), petroleum geologists soon called it the most important single oil find in New Mexico history.
The Midwest State No. 1 well — spudded in late 1927 using a standard cable-tool rig — saw its first signs of oil from the giant oilfield at a depth of 4,065 feet on June 13, 1928. It had been a long journey. (more…)
by Bruce Wells | Jun 4, 2025 | Petroleum Pioneers
Drilling for water in 1894, Corsicana discovered an oilfield and became the richest town in Texas.
In the summer of 1894, town leaders of Corsicana, Texas, hired a contractor to drill a water well on 12th Street. The driller found oil instead. The small community’s oilfield discovery launched the first Texas oil boom seven years before a more famous gusher at Spindletop Hill far to the southeast.
Corsicana’s first oil well produced less than three barrels of oil a day, but it quickly transformed the sleepy agricultural town into a petroleum and industrial center. The discovery launched industries, including service companies and manufacturers of the newly invented rotary drilling rig.

The first Texas oil boom arrived in 1894 with discovery of the Corsicana oilfield by a drilling contractor hired by the city to find water. An annual Derrick Day Chili & BBQ Cook-Off celebrates the discovery. Colorized postcard of Navarro County oil wells, circa 1910.
Corsicana local historians consider the 1894 discovery well, drilled on South 12th Street, the first significant commercial oil discovery west of the Mississippi (Kansans claim the same distinction for an 1892 Neodesha oil well).
Early Texas Oilfields
The American Well and Prospecting Company (from Kansas) made the oil strike on June 9, 1894, at a depth of 1,035 feet. The city council — angry and still wanting water for its growing community 55 miles south of Dallas — paid only half of the drilling contractor’s $1,000 fee. (more…)
by Bruce Wells | May 19, 2025 | Petroleum Pioneers
Oilfield discovered in May 1940 — after 57 years of unsuccessful searches for a “vein of petroleum.”
Pawnee Royalty Company completed a successful wildcat oil well in Nebraska’s Richardson County on May 1940, after lawmakers in Lincoln, eager for petroleum tax revenue, offered a $15,000 bounty.
After more than a hal-century of drilling expensive “dry holes,” Nebraska’s first commercial oil well arrived on May 29, 1940, in the far southeastern corner of the state. The Pawnee Royalty Company made the discovery west of Falls City. The company had drilled two unsuccessful wells near Falls City in 1939.

Nebraska’s oil production reached more than 2.51 million barrels of oil in 2012 (above), but declined to about 1.71 million barrels of oil by 2021, according to the Nebraska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.
A historical marker in Richardson County reports the earliest “publicized report of oil in Nebraska had been an 1883 newspaper account of a ‘vein of petroleum’ discovered in the same county.”
“Over the next 57 years the search for oil consumed thousands of dollars, and hundreds of wells were drilled throughout Nebraska,” adds the marker, erected by the Nebraska Petroleum Council. “Traces of oil were reported at various locations across the state, but Nebraska did not have a producing well until 1940.”
Oil Discovery Bounty
Eager to become an oil-producing state, the Nebraska legislature had offered a $15,000 bonus for any oil well in Nebraska to produce 50 barrels daily for 60 consecutive days. Florida lawmakers, also eager for oil revenue, would do the same (see First Florida Oil Well).

Circa 1940s postcard depicts a “pool of oil” produced by the Bucholz Well No. 1 near Falls City, Nebraska.
Although unsuccessful, the two earlier Pawnee Royalty Company wells had shown encouraging signs near Falls City. A third well, Bucholz No. 1, began drilling on April 22, 1940.
“On May 29, 1940, the well began producing and averaged 169-1/2 barrels daily for the first 60 days,” notes the historic marker. “Bucholz Well No. 1 thus easily qualified for a $15,000 bonus.”
Richardson County enjoyed a drilling boom for three years. The state’s first successful oil well was completed five miles east of the county’s “vein of petroleum” first reported in 1883.
SW Nebraska Oilfields
More Nebraska petroleum production would come from the southwestern panhandle. A 1949 discovery well produced 225 barrels of oil a day from a depth of 4,429 feet. Marathon Oil completed the well, the Mary Egging No. 1, five miles southeast of Gurley in Cheyenne County.

The Marathon oil discovery in western Nebraska ended 60 years of drilling expensive “dry holes” in that part of the state, according to a roadside marker on U.S. 385 between Sidney and Gurley.
According to the marker, interest in finding oil in western Nebraska began in 1889, near Crawford, in the northwest corner of the Nebraska Panhandle, and “drilling there took place in 1903 near Chadron, also in the northern part of the Panhandle.”

Prior to 1950, Nebraska had no office to report production for record keeping. Oil production from 1939 to 1949 is estimated by the Geological Survey to have been almost six million barrels.
A 1917 exploratory well, “drilled in the southwest Panhandle, near Harrisburg, failed,” the marker adds. “Oil searchers sunk many other dry test wells in western Nebraska until success came in 1949.”
New Technologies
By 1966, wells in the western Nebraska oilfields produced more than 216 million barrels of oil. “The pioneer efforts in this area have resulted in a major contribution to the economy of the state,” concludes the Nebraska State Historical Society.

New technologies, including horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, brought renewed activity to Nebraska in the 2000s. Exploration company geologists began testing the Niobrara Shale in the southwestern part of the state.
Nebraska’s annual production declined in 2023 to about 1.5 million barrels of oil, which was the lowest level since 1950, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Production peaked in 1962 at almost 25 million barrels.
Learn about the earliest oilfield discoveries in other petroleum-producing states in First Oil Discoveries.
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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.
Citation Information – Article Title: “First Nebraska Oil Well.” Author: Aoghs.org Editors. Website Name: American Oil & Gas Historical Society. URL:https://aoghs.org/petroleum-pioneers/first-nebraska-oil-well. Last Updated: May 23, 2025. Original Published Date: May 26, 2013.