Covering a wide range of museums, historic locations, and other oddities revolving around crude oil, natural gas, and the wildcatters who risked it all to make it big.
Kansas Oil & Gas Museum5944 10th StGreat Bend, KS 67530 Summer Hours:April 1- Sept 31Monday – Friday: 1PM – 5PM Winter Hours:Oct 1 – March 31By Appointment Only AdmissionVariable The Kansas Oil & Gas Museum might be better described as a museum of an oil & gas museum. The museum has gone decades with few…
Galveston, Texas is host to one of the most unique oil museums in the US. Unlike most landlocked museums, the Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Museum is housed on a retired jackup drilling rig. Visitors to the busy island walk past fishing boats unloading their catch and across a gangway to the Ocean Star Offshore Drilling…
Motorists along Route 66 expect to see many things—classic diners, period motels, and no shortage of tourist traps. But what such a traveler probably wasn’t expecting but certainly cannot miss, is the massive Parker Drilling Co. Rig 114, parked right along America’s Main Street. This 181 foot tall rig is one of the tallest rigs…
The Conoco Museum in Ponca City, Oklahoma celebrates a history of risk, innovation, and mergers. The museum follows the history of the international petroleum juggernaut from humble beginnings to exceptional growth, acquisitions, and partnerships. Conoco traces its origin to the Continental Oil and Transportation Company. Continental was founded in 1875 by Isaac Blake and four…
In case there was any question about the subject matter of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, the 100 cattle brands decorating its entrance and iconic old oil derrick should remove any doubt. This is a history museum for and about northern Texas. Located in Canyon, just south of Amarillo, on the West Texas A&M University campus,…
In Bartlesville, Oklahoma is a memorial to an industry giant born from the oilfields in Oklahoma. The Phillips Petroleum Company Museum is a two story structure filled with artifacts, dioramas, and tales of the history of Phillips Petroleum from the early speculation in the Oklahoma oil fields to the 66ers basketball team. The Company Phillips Petroleum Co. was founded…
Only a few miles from the Drake Well Museum is the remains of a remarkable oil boom town that went bust in less than two years of existence. Pithole, Pennsylvania was initially farm land before oil was pumped out of Drake’s Well. With the discovery of a process to extract petroleum from the ground at…
Pennsylvania might not be the first place one thinks of when considering oil, but it was the first place that oil was drilled in America. On August 27, 1859, in Titusville, Pennsylvania next to Oil Creek, Edwin Drake completed the first commercial oil well. The Drake Well Museum preserves the original well and celebrates the…
While the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) scope and presence spans across the country, its main offices are found in Washington DC. There, a grand building has been the hub of public land management since its construction was completed in 1936. Along with offices, the building houses a museum and an extensive collection of murals…
Nestled in the middle of a block of industrial buildings in Santa Fe Springs is a time capsule of ranching and oil life from the yearly twentieth century. The Hathaway Ranch & Oil Museum is 5 acres of historic buildings and artifacts from the Hathaway family’s work in cattle ranching, water, and oil drilling. Artifacts…
