The Greater Seminole Area

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The search for and the production of petroleum has always played an important part in the economic life of Oklahoma. Since 1896, when the first commercial oil well was drilled in at Bartlesville, to the present there has been an incessant probing of the Oklahoma earth for "black gold" During these years many great producing pools- Glennpool, Cushing, Three Sands, Healdton, and Oklahoma City as well as several other "giant oil fields" within the state- have become world famous for the quantity of oil produced, but none were as spectacular or as unique as that collection of oil fields known as the Greater Seminole Area.

The Greater Seminole Area, located in the east central part of Oklahoma, covers approximately 1,300 square miles, an area that includes all of seminole County plus adjacent parts of Pottawatomie, Hughes, Okfuskee, and Pontotoc counties. Located within the Greater Seminole Area are six- Earlsboro, St. Louis, Seminole, Bowlegs, Little River, Allen- of the state's 22 "giant oil fields." Although all oil producing areas have numerous factors in common, several significant itemsmake the Greater Seminole Area unusual among the oil areas of Oklahoma. The area has had a tremendous economic impact on the state and, during the period of its greatest petroleum production, the nation. Unlike many other oil producing regions, the Greater Seminole Area continues today as an economically viable part of Oklahoma.

The present state of Oklahoma, with the exception of the Panhandle, became a part of the United States when Louisiana Territory was purchased in 1803. The young American nation, seeking a solution to its Indian problems, soon decided to remove the members of the Five Civilized Tribes to the lands west of Arkansas Territory. In 1832 the members of the Creek Confederacy were assigned lands in the central part of Indian Territory north of the Canadian River, south and west of the Arkansas River, and south of the Cherokee Outlet. The Seminoles, the last of the Five tribes to cease resistance to removal, were located in the Creek Nation. Such a union, however, proved incompatible; thus, in 1855, the Seminoles were assigned their own lands in the western part of the Creek Nation.

The Seminoles were the smallest in numbers and the lowest on the economic scale of the Five Civilized Tribes. They were, however, making an attempt to organize a satisfactory national government and develope a suitable economic system when the Civil War started. Like the other Civilized Tribes, the Seminoles were split between the Union and the Confederacy. Some Seminoles owned slaves, others violently opposed slavery. As a result the Nation practically disappeared during the war years. Following the Civil War in 1866, new treaties were made with each of the Five Tribes, At that time the Seminoles, following an agreement with the Creeks, were assigned a new and better located area for their homeland. At the time of statehood, in 1907, the Seminole Nation became Seminole County and Wewoka, the Seminole capital, became the couty seat.

Prior to the oil boom period, the Greater Seminole Area was one of the poorest economic areas in Oklahoma. Most of Seminole County, and that part of the Area to the east, lies entirely in the Sandstone Hills region of Oklahoma and is underlaid by alternating sandstones and shales. The sandstones are very resistant to weathering and thereby produce a rough topography. In general the hills lie in ranges having a northeast-southwest trend. Vegitation wise, most of the hills and many of the valleys were covered with blackjack and post oak trees, but in some places there were larde stands of other hardwoods such as black walnut. One source stated the situation as follows:

While much of the county (Seminole) is too rough for agriculture purposes, there are large areas with soil sufficiently thick and fertile to be very productive. Owing to the ownership of the land, which belongs principally to the Seminole Indians, the county has been very backwards in its development. There are no mining or manufacturing industries, although several attemps have been made to find oil and gass. Some oil was found near Wewoka, but not sufficient quantity to encourage further development.

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