Cimarron Valley Historical Society - Preserving Local History

The earliest history of what was to become Oklahoma mostly consisted of semi-nomadic hunters roaming this land, and later by an occasional white explorer. The historical record really starts with the forced removal of indigenous people from the southeast to Indian Territory

Native Americans were farmers long before Europeans came to this continent but they had not raised livestock. However, these first Americans soon learned that raising livestock like the newer Americans was a good thing and many became adept at it. During the Indian Removal in the 1830’s and 1840's, members of the five great tribes of the southeast brought their livestock with them on the long journey to Indian Territory and soon started ranching. After the Civil War, the Five Tribes ceded parts of their land to the U.S. Government, and it became the Unassigned Lands. During this same period, other tribes were also moved to Indian Territory but they had less interest in ranching and chose to lease their tribal lands to large cattle companies. The Cherokee preferred to live and ranch in their northeastern section of Indian Territory but leased the Cherokee Outlet to the Cherokee Strip Livestock Association that represented large cattle companies mostly from Kansas. Ranching in Indian Territory reached a zenith in the early 1880's, but problems soon arose when the Boomer movement, wanting to settle the Unassigned Lands, came into direct conflict with the U.S. Army and the ranchers grazing cattle there. This created a situation that culminated in the opening of the Unassigned Lands in 1889. Soon, parts of Indian Territory were opened for settlement one after the other. Except for the Cherokee Outlet being opened by a "Run" in 1893, the lands of the original Five Tribes were not opened to settlement but were forced to change from communal tribal land and take allotments that ended most large-scale ranching. This map shows ranches in the 1880's era of north-central Indian Territory, however, these are just a fraction of the total number of ranches that were operated in Indian Territory and the Unassigned Lands.

Cattle Ranching was the first industry

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The land openings caused big ranching to abdicate the throne and cotton became the new "king"

According to the Oklahoma Historical Society, cotton was grown in Indian Territory long before the land openings. In the 1850's, one plantation in the Choctaw Nation covered 5,000 acres. Later, Oklahoma was the third largest cotton producing state behind Texas and Mississippi. There were four cotton gins in Cushing along with a cotton oil processing plant and a cotton compress to bundle the cotton for shipping via rail.

Farmers Cotton Co. gin on the south side of 300 block West Cherry Street near the A.T.& S.F. tracks

Cotton wagons fill the street in 100 block West Broadway in downtown Cushing

A compress plant with bales of compressed cotton on the A.T.& S.F. railway platform waiting to be shipped. View is south-southwest with cotton oil plant in background

Commonwealth Cotton Oil Co. located west of the A.T.& S.F. tracks on the south side of West Cherry Street

Cushing Cotton Co. gin on the northwest corner of Moses and Depot streets

Wagon loads of cotton in 100 block North Cleveland Avenue in downtown Cushing

It all began on March 17, 1912, after wildcatter Thomas B. “Tom” Slick got financial backing from Charles B. Shaffer to spud in a well on the Frank M. Wheeler farm located on the northeast side of what was soon to become the boom town of Drumright. This discovery well was named the Wheeler Number 1. And discover it did! The well was the first to tap into the Cushing Pool, the third largest oil field in the United States. And not only that, it produced high quality crude oil.

In early 1912, Drumright and Oilton didn’t exist. The nearest town this side of the Cimarron that had railroads necessary for the transportation of petroleum and the refined products was Cushing. Immediately, plans were made to acquire land around the railroads at Cushing to construct the refineries that would be needed to process the petroleum.

From 1913 to 1918, a total of 17 known petroleum refinery sites had been established at Cushing with 13 still in operation in 1918 that processed 45,000 barrels of oil daily. In 1918, the total number of employees at all these refineries was 1500 to 2000.

Before the last refinery in Cushing shut down in 1982, there had been no less than 40 companies doing business as petroleum refiners at the sites shown on this map, and this is not counting the casinghead refiners in the field.

Because of the oil field around Yale and Quay, there were eleven companies doing business as refiners in or near Yale, the largest of them all, Carter Oil Co. was located near the south bank of the Cimarron River close to the railroad bridge near Norfolk.

There were three refineries and two gasoline plants in and around Drumright, with the largest, Tidewater Oil Company, continuing to operate until 1954.

The North American Refining Company was built in 1915 at the Oilfields & Santa Fe tracks in Pemeta.

The refineries are all gone, but the lasting legacy of oil still remains with large areas of tank farms around Cushing and this city is proudly called the "PIPELINE CROSSROADS OF THE WORLD".