History
Early claimants
In mid-19th century, when Pennsylvania was the first center of petroleum production, Pittsburgh [5] and Titusville [6] were considered oil capitals. In the later 19th century, before oil was discovered in Texas, Oklahoma, or the Middle East, Cleveland, Ohio had a claim to the title, [7] with 86 [8] or 88 [9] refineries operating in the city in 1884.
Tulsa's Claim
Tulsa claimed the name early in the 20th century, after oil strikes at Red Fork (1901) and Glenpool (1905) in Tulsa County. Many prominent oilmen lived in Tulsa at some point, including Josh Cosden, [10] William Skelly, [11] Harry Ford Sinclair, [12] Waite Phillips, [13] Thomas Gilcrease, [14] George Kaiser, [15] and J. Paul Getty. [16] Many corporations producing, refining or transporting petroleum had at some point their headquarters or major facilities in Tulsa including Texaco, [17] BP-Amoco, [18] Cities Service Company, [19] Sinclair Oil and Gas Company, [20] Skelly Oil Company, [11] Warren Petroleum Company, [21] the Williams Companies, [22] and Kaiser-Francis Oil Company. [23] In 1923 a group of Tulsa oilmen organized the first International Petroleum Exposition and Congress (IPE); among the IPE's stated purposes was to "firmly establish Tulsa for all time to come as the oil center of the entire world." [24]
Tulsa continued to be known and promote itself as the "oil capital of the world" into the 1950s [25] and 1960s. The IPE grew and reached its peak attendance in 1966, when the Golden Driller, a large statue symbolic of Tulsa's historical importance in the oil industry, was erected in front of the new IPE Building, then said to be the world's largest building under one roof. [26] By the 1970s, however, the IPE's success, and Tulsa's role in the international oil industry, had both eroded: Tulsa's last IPE was held in 1979, [27] while Houston has become the most prominent hub of the oil industry in the United States. In more recent times, Tulsa's continued use of "oil capital of the world" is often characterized as nostalgic or historical. [28] [29] But even today, energy is one of Tulsa's major industries, [30] and many of the city's professional sports franchises have petroleum-related names such as the Tulsa Oilers (ice hockey), Tulsa Oilers (indoor football), Tulsa Drillers (baseball), and Tulsa Roughnecks (now FC Tulsa, men's soccer).
Kilgore's oil boom
During the 1930s, Kilgore, Texas emerged as the epicenter of the East Texas Oil Field - the largest oil field in the contiguous United States at the time. Kilgore's transformation was unprecedented: its population exploded from 800 to over 10,000 within months of the 1930 discovery. The city became known as the "Oil Capital of the World" due to its dense concentration of derricks, with over 1,100 wells within city limits at the boom's peak. The most famous site was the "World's Richest Acre", a single city block containing 24 producing wells. This title was formally recognized by the State of Texas in 1965 with an official historical marker acknowledging Kilgore's pivotal role in American petroleum history. [31] [32] [33] The Kilgore Drillers (baseball) where also named during this time.