Oil in the Osage Indian Nation and the "Million Dollar Elm"

The wealth the stone calls glamorous rested on a federal rule, and it made Osage people targets. Under the Osage Allotment Act of 1906 the minerals stayed tribal property held in trust, and each allottee drew one equal share, a headright, which heirs could inherit whether Osage or not. About two dozen Osage died violent or suspicious deaths in the early 1920s, many around Fairfax, among them the mother and two sisters of Mollie Burkhart.

What the plaque says

Oil in the Osage Indian Nation and the "Million Dollar Elm" Symbolic of the impact oil had on the people of the Osage Indian Nation is the so-called "Million Dollar Elm". It was given this name because in its shade millions of dollars worth of Osage oil leases were auctioned. It was planted at this site sometime during the latter part of the 19th century as an ornament and for shade. The name was not given by tribal leaders, but by reporters and magazine writers who were dramatizing the events when important heads and founders of the world's greatest oil companies came in person to bid. The auctioneer himself, the histrionic Colonel Walters, became famous because of his success in getting top bids. The story of oil and the Osages is one of the most glamorous facets of the oil industry in America. It began with the drilling of the first well in the Osage in October, 1897. On March 2, 1922, the first 160-acre tract to bring a million dollars or more was in the NE 25-27-5. Skelly Oil Company and Phillips Petroleum Company bid jointly on this tract. Highest bonus paid for a 160-acre tract was by Midland Oil Company, March 29, 1924 for $1,990,000. This was in the NW 14-27-5. A total of 18 tracts brought bonuses of $1,000,000 or more. By November 1969, the Osage lands had produced a billion barrels of oil and it was estimated that two billion barrels remained in the area. Oklahoma Historical Society 1970 with Oklahoma Petroleum Council

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Osage Nation Museum — steps away
  The Osage Nation's own museum on the Pawhuska agency campus since May 1938, built around a trader's collection the council bought back and the faces of the 2,229 original allottees.
• Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve — 13 mi
  Nearly 40,000 acres of unplowed Osage County prairie north of Pawhuska, worked with fire and some 2,500 free-roaming bison, with the cabin where John Joseph Mathews wrote his books.
• Frank Phillips Home — 21 mi
  The 26-room Neo-Classical house in Bartlesville that the founder of Phillips Petroleum built in 1909, kept almost as the family left it, furniture and all.

More markers nearby

• Battle of Chustenahlah — 26 mi