These 24 Rare Photos Show Oklahoma's Oil History Like Never Before
By Ashley|Published December 30, 2016
×
Ashley
Author
Ashley has lived in Oklahoma for 30 years and is the Oklahoma staff writer for onlyinyourstate.com. When she isn't writing about Oklahoma, she enjoys visiting the beach and exploring new areas.
Indian Territory was not known for much more than Native Americans, cows and prairie land before it struck oil in the late 1800s. Word quickly spread around the nation and oil companies flocked to the land that would become Oklahoma in 1907.
In 1901, a huge gusher was discovered near Tulsa making it the “Oil Capital of the World.” The Sooner State quickly became famous worldwide for its “black gold” and was the top U.S. oil producer (along with California) until 1930. The oil industry changed Oklahoma by creating jobs and wealth for many, but it didn’t come without a price. Many lives were lost from fires, accidents and a host of other problems that came from the industry.
Here are 24 rare photos that show Oklahoma’s oil history like never before. (Original captions and dates included when provided from source.)
1. "Cellar for well being dug in parkway just south of capitol." Date unknown.
2. "An excavation crew, digging in the alley behind the John A. Brown Co., in downtown Oklahoma City, has struck oil. The oil, about 11,000 gallons, was found in a 22,000 tank buried 20 feet below the ground." May 12, 1952.
6. "Sunday was just another work day for officials of the Standard Oil Co. and the Carter Oil Co. of Tulsa, who are in Oklahoma this weekend." May 26, 1945.
8. "Thousands os spectators, most of them representatives of the oil and gas industry, were on hand Thursday for the opening of the 10-day 1966 Tulsa International Petroleum Exposition." May 12, 1966.
9. "Fireman were much in evidence Friday night around the No. 1 McMannis of the Big Chief Drilling Co., in the 100 block Madison Avenue, after the well went wild shot oil and gasoline around the state capitol." Oct 24, 1941.
11. "Under a billowing column of heavy black smoke, firemen pour chemicals on a blaze which followed an explosion in an 80,000-barrel storage tank at the Cimarron Valley Pipe Line Co., a mile north of the state fairgrounds."
15. "From 20 to 30 wells are being reconditioned in the Wilcox zone of the Oklahoma City field at this time and scenes such as this are familiar." 1941.
17. "THE SHOW MUST GO ON, Skelly Oil Co. officials decided in the middle of a recent Oklahoma "norther," and a circus tent was about the only solution." 1972.
