Glenpool Beginning
DAVID JONES for GTR Newspapers
It took more than a century but a monument honoring the true beginning of Oklahoma’s association with oil has been unveiled in Glenpool.
On Nov. 22, 1905, Robert Galbreath, Frank Chesley and Charles Colcord were drilling an exploratory well on land leased from Ida Glenn.
Deep into the chilly night they heard a rumble, then saw oil gushing to the surface. Their economic salvation came none too soon, the three men were near bankruptcy, but within years the Glenn Pool, from which the city of Glenpool was named, was extracting 120,000 barrels of oil a day.
It was, for the time, the largest oil find in history. What was its impact?
According to Web site sources bigger than the California Gold Rush and the discovery of silver in Colorado combined. Now Glenpool has a derrick honoring the Ida Glenn at Black Gold Park near 141st Street and Highway 75. The 28-foot tall structure features an oil derrick sitting atop a granite base on which is engraved the history of the occasion.
Updated 04-22-2008
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