The Jackson Barnett No. 11 Oil Well was the most productive

oil well An oil well is a drillhole boring in Earth that is designed to bring petroleum oil hydrocarbons to the surface. Usually some natural gas is released as associated petroleum gas along with the oil. A well that is designed to produce only gas may ...

in the

Cushing Oil Field The Cushing Oil Field, also known as the Cushing-Drumright Oil Field, is an oil field in northeastern Oklahoma, part of the Mid-Continent oil province. The by field includes southeastern Payne County, northwestern Creek County, and northeas ...

of northeastern

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

, USA, to the south of Drumright. The well was drilled in 1916 in the Shamrock Dome section of the Cushing field by the Gypsy Oil Company, striking oil on February 17. The well was on the land of Jackson Barnett, a

Creek A creek in North America and elsewhere, such as Australia, is a stream that is usually smaller than a river. In the British Isles it is a small tidal inlet. Creek may also refer to: People * Creek people, also known as Muscogee, Native Americans ...

landowner who subsequently became known as the "world's richest Indian". Jackson Barnett and wife

Barnett owned in trust

Creek County Creek County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2010 census, the population was 69,967. Its county seat is Sapulpa. Creek County is part of the Tulsa, OK Metropolitan Statistical Area. History European explorers tr ...

, which began producing oil in 1912. Jackson's 12.5 percent royalty on the oil from his land earned him between $3 million and $4 million during his lifetime, but he only received a few hundred dollars per year at first. Until 1920, his fortune was managed as a trust by Creek County courts and the Department of the Interior, on the pretext that Jackson was illiterate and legally incompetent due to a head injury. Barnett's money became the subject of extensive litigation and eventual Congressional hearings. In 1920, he was pursued by Anna Laura Lowe, whom he married after one meeting. When a court gave part of the trust's money to Anna to administer, the couple moved to Los Angeles and bought a mansion. The well was drilled into the Tucker sand layer at a depth between and . Production on the well's first day was 4,000 barrels, rising to 10,000 barrels a day and peaking at 18,000 barrels per day. Average production was 10,000 barrels a day for most of its life. It was the first well in the Cushing field to produce 1 million barrels of oil and established the Oklahoma record for production from a single well. The well was capped in the mid-1960s. The site includes concrete foundations, the capped well casing, and a sign. In 1980, eight neighboring wells continued to produce oil. The Jackson Barnett well was placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on July 27, 1982.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Oklahoma Buildings and structures completed in 1916 Buildings and structures in Creek County, Oklahoma Oil wells in Oklahoma National Register of Historic Places in Creek County, Oklahoma Oil wells on the National Register of Historic Places