Boynton's Oil Field

Americans today worry about high gasoline prices. This renews interest in drilling in the United States instead of overseas. History repeats itself: almost one hundred years ago, Muskogee County was the location of frenzied drilling.

The Boynton Field was the smallest field in the county. Oil fields commonly took their names from the nearest town. As time went by, the oil field's name morphed into the Boynton-Haskell Field and then into the Boynton-Creekola Field. As more was learned about the oil field's dimensions, geologists added Haskell and Creekola to Boynton's name to better describe the field.

During the early years, the size and shape of the field was unknown. The Boynton Field has a domed shape with the top of the dome located in the Boynton area. Drilling was initially to a depth of about one thousand feet. Drilling to the same depth in the surrounding area failed to produce oil because the drilling rigs were not reaching lower portions of the field.

The earliest report of oil drilling near Boynton occurred in 1894, ten years before the establishment of the town. A decade later, some forty wells were drilled on the location of the present townsite.

Wildcatters returned to the Boynton area in June 1910. This time they drilled on the Jackson farm to a depth of 1,700 feet. This well initially produced a mere twenty barrels a day. Despite the oil being of the highest grade, interest in drilling in the area dropped again. However, this well promised geologists that there was more oil deeper in the ground.

During the next few years, events brought wildcatters back to the Boynton area again. Part of the increased interest arose from the explosion in the number of automobiles using internal combustion engines. Another part of the increase came because of the declaration of war in Europe.

Drilling in Okmulgee County and the huge success of the Glen Pool Field brought more interest to the Boynton area in 1914. The Yoga Oil and Gas Company started drilling one and a half miles south of Boynton in mid-January. Then, Litchfield and Sullivan found oil that gushed 40 to 60 barrels a day on the C. Davis farm in early February.

This later well helped finally to establish the Boynton Field in Oklahoma as one worth extensive development. In May, a second Litchfield and Sullivan well on the same property produced paying quantity of natural gas. At the same time, the Pulaski Oil Company and the Prairie Oil and Gas Company began bringing in oil wells nearby.

Two years later the Boynton Refining Company invested about $90,000 in the construction of a refinery. Its initial capacity was one thousand barrels of crude oil a day. The facility had the capacity to produce about four thousand gallons of gasoline. About 1918, Oklahoma refineries were selling gasoline at nineteen cents a gallon. Major Refining Company constructed a second refinery in 1917 in Boynton.

There were seventy-six wells drilled into the Boynton Field in 1916. These wells produced 4,617 barrels of crude oil a day. The field's peak production was in 1915 with about 7,500 barrels a day being pumped out. By the end of 1919, however, field production dropped to 1,800 barrels.

All oil fields reach a point where wells are no longer producing sufficient oil to justify running the pumps. Boynton Field was a smaller field and that point came early. Today, Boynton Field is little more than a footnote in history.