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.

Manual Training High School's Beginning

In 1909, the manual training educational system sweeping across America was ten years old. Following the new state's declaration for separate education for Oklahoma youths, Muskogee floated a bond proposal. Muskogee's Manual Training High School was a product of these twin drives.

The purpose of a manual system of education was to teach children in grades six to twelve to use their hands. In this manner, educators believed students would stay in school longer. It was also felt they would be better prepared for the industrial world when they left school. Muskogee's school was the second one constructed in the state for African Americans, after Oklahoma City.

Muskogee's bond in 1909 funded the construction of three schools. In mid-February, C. W. Briles and C. W. Dawson went to Missouri and Illinois schools to get ideas for the construction of the new school buildings. Briles was Muskogee's school superintendent while Dawson was an architect. All three schools were ready for use when schools opened in the fall of 1910.

About $75,000 went to purchasing the land and building Muskogee's Manual Training High School. The building and mechanicals cost $70,000. The balance purchased a trapezoidal one-acre lot across the street from the new Dunbar elementary school. Money also purchased playground equipment.

The building's two stories sat atop a full basement. It had a parapet around the front that added stature to the buildings yellow brick exterior. This touch of grandeur promoted a sense of pride among the students and faculty that lasted a century.

Manual Training High School educated 138 students in grades nine through twelve during 1916. Two-thirds were girls. Furthermore, its classrooms taught another 285 pupils in one class of the sixth grade and all of the seventh and eighth grades.

There were nineteen classrooms in the building. Four teachers taught the students below the ninth grade. Eight full-time and two part-time teachers taught the high school pupils. C. B. Bryant served as the school principal. The music teacher was Leanna C. Clark. The rest of the teachers were Elizabeth S. Brown, Lucy M. Elliott, Nellie W. Greene, M. Johnson-Jones, S. S. McCulloch, Julia E. Nickens, A. C. Perdue, Florence Pickens, Alma Ross, Susan A. Sharpe, W. O. Sneed, Myrtle Williams and S. E. Williams.

The high school students had two choices in their course of study. Eighty-seven pupils chose the general course that year. There were the basic classes of English, history, math and science taught to all students. Students often chose to take Latin during their last three years. The school's library was considered excellent for its day.

The manual training curriculum served boys and girls differently. The girls alternated sewing classes with cooking classes.

The boys in the industrial courses studied woodworking and mechanical drawing. Their classes were three double periods each week.

The Manual Training High School increased the emphasis on African American education in Muskogee County. The growth in student population caused the enlargement of the school building, first in 1922 and again in 1929. Additional buildings housing classrooms and vocational workspace came later, but the last addition in 1929 defined the main high school building until it closed in 1970.

Elbert Little, Dendrologist

Elbert Luther Little, Jr., moved to Muskogee in 1909 as an infant. In 1923, he graduated from the Muskogee's Central High School. Little is famous for the compilation of numerous atlases of American trees. These works are still constantly in use today in the study of the impact of global warming.

Elbert was the son of a railroad tax agent. Like his father, he was always interested in details. His excellent oral and visual memory served him well. He made good grades throughout his school years where his fellow students thought he was "smart." Even so, they never imagined the height of recognition Elbert would obtain.

He continued his Latin and Spanish studies during his senior year. At the same time, he was also class secretary cum treasurer and a class reporter for "The Scout."

Elbert attended Muskogee Junior College the last year he lived in Muskogee. Then he enrolled for a summer course at McPherson Collage in McPherson, Kansas, in 1924. There he took his first biology course at the private, liberal arts institution. For a few years, the college offered field-study courses in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It was in Colorado that his study of plants and trees became the focus of his life.

At the end of summer, Elbert enrolled at the University of Oklahoma. Because the university accepted the credits Elbert earned in the junior college in Muskogee, he graduated in three years with Bachelor of Arts degree in botany. The year was 1927. Without any letup, Elbert then enrolled in the University of Chicago. Within another two years, he earned a masters degree and a doctorate. Both advanced degrees were in botany. The topic of both his thesis and his dissertation was studies of plants of Oklahoma.

Elbert's first job was with the Oklahoma Forest Commission. Afterwards, he taught college courses at Weatherford for three years. During this period, he earned yet another diploma, this time in zoology.

In the height of the Great Depression, when President Roosevelt was trying to reduce the damage caused by the Dust Bowl, Elbert became a federal employee of the Forest Service of the US Department of Agriculture. He worked for the USDA for eight years as a forest ecologist based in Tucson, Arizona.

Elbert Little accepted a promotion and moved to Washington, DC in 1942. He worked for the next thirty-four years as a dendrologist. In his study of American trees (the dendro- in his title), he began his publishing career in earnest. He wrote over 150 handbooks and hardbacks, some multi-volume works, on the trees of the western hemisphere. His fluency in Spanish really helped him in his studies of trees south of the Mexican border.

He wrote the Field Guide to North American Trees. Published by the Audubon Society, this two-volume set is still in print with more than a million copies sold. The book for the eastern region covers Muskogee.

Elbert Little's list of awards and service is too long to cite here. In the early 1990's, he returned to his old hometown to see how much he remembered from his youth. Of course, he visited the library to see if any of his books were on the shelves. I found him to be a gentle man with just a tinge of pride. We searched for his books and then he left.

It was not until years later that I realized the measure of his contributions in the study of trees. If one searches for his name on the internet, the list of hits often include acknowledgements by other researchers of Elbert Little's contributions. This scientist truly surpassed his surname by a mile.

The Olympic Airdome

An "airdome" was an open-air theater. Muskogee once had a number of airdomes around town. They operated from late spring to late fall each year. This is the story of the Olympic Airdome.

The Olympic rose from the ground on South Third Street next to the Columbia Alley. Carpenters finished the theater in May of 1907. Maybe the wood for the theater came from the lumberyard located behind the Olympic. The location of the airdome in the 200 block retained a bit of old Muskogee town flavor. There were a couple of residences located across the street that were destined to be replaced by stores in just a few years.

The eighteen-foot high stage faced west. It was about twenty feet deep and had a performance area that covered thirty of the stage's fifty-foot width. The bleachers backed up against Third Street to a height of fifteen feet. Tickets sold for ten cents and a quarter each.

Most theaters of this period accommodated vaudevillian performances. Thus, it is no surprise that a troupe of performers opened the theater. "Ferris' Comedians" was one of Dick Ferris' four companies entertaining audiences in America. This troupe of performers remained in town for over a week.

Their first play entitled "Friends" headlined the Olympic Airdome's first season. The "Ku Klux Klan" followed, but was immediately cancelled after its first night. Thirty citizens petitioned the city in opposition to its performance and the acting mayor, J. B. Campbell, ordered it shut down. The actors performed the same play two days later at Hyde Park outside of city limits.

Being versatile, the sixteen-member troupe performed "Her First False Step" at the Olympic in place of the cancelled show. This five-act melodrama was one of several performances that greatly amused the viewers for the rest of the troupe's stay in town.

The Olympic opened with electric lights strung from the stage to the stands. Before the season was over, electricity also ran a movie projector showing black and white silent films. The audience waited at the end of each reel for the loading of the next one because the theater owned only a single projector.

Many casts of performers would be coming to the Olympic one after another during the next eight years. One comedy making the rounds of many theater circuits had a serious message. "Ten Nights in a Bar Room" drove home the value of temperance. The Sherman Stock Company performed it and the Russian drama named "Michael Strogoff." The last play was based on an original story by Jules Verne.

The "Ferris' Comedians" stayed long enough to put on one last show. It was entitled "The Cattle King," a western melodrama that was based on the dime novel of Frank Dumont by the same name. The first few lines from the actors ceased momentarily when a fistfight broke out in the back bleachers. A young man named J. G. Blalock was blocking some "ten cent" seats when instructed to sit down. The altercation lasted but a minute before the restoration of order.

Yet, this 1907 incident represented the nature of rowdiness common in general theaters of the day. Rowdiness did not doom open-air theaters. Their demise came about by the desire for more control over the elements.

Brick and mortar buildings paid investors with a steady, year-round income from ticket sales. As motion pictures became the most common form of entertainment, audiences were grateful they no longer had to suffer from an interruption in a performance when a train passed through Muskogee.

By 1916, the proprietors had abandoned the Olympic Airdome. The lumber company behind the theater asked the city to have the old theater condemned. The city fire marshal and building inspector both examined the theater. In their joint report to the city council, they stated that both the theater and the lumberyard were firetraps. In the end, the city took no immediate action against the old airdome, but it already had seen the last stage full of actors.