The First Reports of Oil in Oklahoma

Raymond Sorenson1

¹Cimarex Energy

150 years ago, when the 1859 Drake well in Pennsylvania provided the spark that launched the modern petroleum industry, Oklahoma already had oil production from a hand dug well in Mayes County, and at least eight publications had mentioned oil seeps in southern Oklahoma. By the time Oklahoma became a state and a major oil producer in the early 20th century, these reports had been largely forgotten, and have been overlooked in the modern geological literature. The proceedings volume of an 1845 geological convention contains the oldest known published description of oil in Oklahoma, from Lt. A. R. Johnston of Fort Washita, who found a steeply dipping sandstone seeping oil in the northern Arbuckle Mountains near Davis. Lt. Johnston’s report was summarized in multiple commercial books related to coal and oil from 1855 to 1865. Chickasaw Indian Agents stated in several annual reports (Upshaw, 1845; 1846; 1848; Smith, 1853) that two or more oil springs in southern Oklahoma were used for medicinal purposes by the local population. Lt. N. H. Michler, Jr. (1850) mentioned these medicinal springs in the report of a military expedition and showed “Oil Spring road” leading west from Fort Washita on what is probably the first published map to depict oil in Oklahoma. Capt. Randolph Marcy, returning from his 1852 expedition to find the source of the Red River, traveled through the Wichita Mountains to the area of future Fort Sill and found oil within igneous outcrops in the immediate vicinity of Medicine Bluffs.

AAPG Search and Discover Article #90097 © 2009 Tulsa Geological Society, Tulsa, Oklahoma

 

 

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