Bartlesville is a city mostly in Washington County and Osage County, Oklahoma. The population was 37,290 at the 2020 census. Bartlesville is north of

Tulsa Tulsa ( ) is the second-most-populous city in the state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tul ...

and south of the

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

border. It is the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

of Washington County. The Caney River runs through Bartlesville. Bartlesville is the primary city of the Bartlesville Micropolitan area, which consists of Washington County and had a population of 51,843 in 2018. A small portion of the city is in Osage County. The city is also part of the Tulsa Combined Statistical Area, with a population of 1,151,172 in 2015. Bartlesville is notable as the longtime home of

Phillips Petroleum Company Phillips Petroleum Company was an American oil company incorporated in 1917 that expanded into petroleum refining, marketing and transportation, natural gas gathering and the chemicals sectors. It was Phillips Petroleum that first found oil in th ...

. Frank Phillips founded Phillips Petroleum in Bartlesville in 1905 when the area was still an

Indian Territory Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United States, ...

. The company merged with

Conoco Conoco ( ), formerly known as Continental Oil, is an American Petroleum industry, petroleum brand that is operating under the current ownership of the Phillips 66 Company since 2012 and is headquartered in the Westchase, Houston, Westchase neigh ...

as ConocoPhillips and later split into the two independent companies, Phillips 66 and ConocoPhillips. Both companies have retained some operations in Bartlesville, but they have moved their corporate headquarters to

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

. It is one of two places in Oklahoma where a

Lenape The Lenape (, , ; ), also called the Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. The Lenape's historica ...

Native American tribe lives, the other being Anadarko.

History

Jacob Bartles, son-in-law of

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...

chief Charles Journeycake, moved from

Wyandotte County, Kansas Wyandotte County () is a county in the U.S. state of Kansas. Its county seat and most populous city is Kansas City, with which it shares a unified government. As of the 2020 census, the population was 169,245, making it Kansas's fourth ...

, to

in 1873. He settled first at Silver Lake, a natural lake south of the present city of Bartlesville. In 1874, he opened a trading post and post office on Turkey Creek, in what is now East Bartlesville. In the following year, he bought a grist mill on the Caney River and modified it to produce flour. Bartles then built a two-story general store and residence, and added a rooming house, a blacksmith shop and a livery stable. Other settlers soon moved into the immediate area, which was then called Bartles Town. In 1880, Bartles moved his Turkey Creek post office to this town. Bartles then provided the community with electricity, a telephone system and a water distribution system.May, Jon D. "Bartlesville." ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture''.
Retrieved January 15, 2012. Development of the present city began after William Johnstone and George B. Keeler opened a general store on the south side of the Caney River in 1884. The first newspaper, ''The Weekly Magnet'', began publication in March 1895. The town was incorporated in

in January 1897. The town was surveyed and platted in 1898, and eighty acres were offered to the

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the largest Class 1 railroads in the United States between 1859 and 1996. The Santa Fe was a pioneer in intermodal freight transport; at vario ...

for a depot. The railroad, though its Kansas, Oklahoma Central and Southwestern Railway subsidiary, reached the town in 1899. The post office was moved from "North Bartlesville" in 1899. Bypassed by the railroad, Jacob Bartles moved his store to what became Dewey, Oklahoma. Bartlesville was also home to Frank Phillips (November 28, 1873 – August 23, 1950) who along with his brother, Lee Eldas "L.E." Phillips Sr founded

Phillips Petroleum Phillips Petroleum Company was an American oil company incorporated in 1917 that expanded into petroleum refining, marketing and transportation, natural gas gathering and the chemicals sectors. It was Phillips Petroleum that first found oil in th ...

in Bartlesville in 1917 and made Bartlesville the headquarters of

Phillips 66 The Phillips 66 Company is an American Multinational corporation, multinational energy company headquartered in Westchase, Houston, Texas. Its name, dating back to 1927 as a trademark of the Phillips Petroleum Company, assisted in establishing ...

. The new company began with assets of $3 million, 27 employees and leases throughout Oklahoma and

but grew to become a multi-billion dollar oil company. Although Bartlesville is no longer the headquarters, the company still has many employees in the community. In 2002, Phillips Petroleum merged with Conoco Oil Company and became ConocoPhillips. Bartlesville was originally a

sundown town Sundown towns, also known as sunset towns, gray towns, or sundowner towns, were all-white municipalities or neighborhoods in the United States. They were towns that practiced a form of racial segregation by excluding non-whites via some combinati ...

where African Americans were not allowed to live. By 1907, the restriction had been lifted, and newspapers noted the town's first natural death of an African American, a man named Robert McGee. In 1957, Bartlesville was the test site for the first experiment in pay cable television. The Bartlesville Telemovie System debuted with the film ''

The Pajama Game ''The Pajama Game'' is a musical based on the 1953 novel '' 7½ Cents'' by Richard Bissell. The book is by George Abbott and Richard Bissell; the music and lyrics are by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. Dances were staged by Bob Fosse in his chor ...

'', starring Doris Day, and aired it to an audience of 300 homes. The headline of the September 4, 1957, issue of ''Variety'' read, "First-Run Films Now at Home". However, after only nine months of operation, on Friday, June 6, 1958, Telemovie signed off forever. Bartlesville was struck by an EF4 tornado that also heavily impacted

Barnsdall Barnsdall is a city in Osage County, Oklahoma, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 1,034. History The community was founded in 1905 and originally named Bigheart, for the Osage Chief James Bigheart. It was ...

on May 6, 2024. Debris cleanup and other recovery efforts were ongoing as of July 2024.

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the city has a total area of , of which is land and (0.09%) is water. The Caney River flows through Bartlesville, separating the downtown area from the east side. The river flooded in October 1986 as a result of unusually heavy rainfall. The city was split in half for several days, and the flood caused considerable property damage. The river broke its banks again in June 2007, cresting five feet below the 1986 level. The Pathfinder Parkway, a paved trail for walking, running, and cycling, runs alongside the Caney River.

Climate

Bartlesville is familiar with both very hot conditions in the summer with a record high of and with very cold conditions with a record of low of . However, even with this record of extremes, the climate of Bartlesville is considered humid subtropical (

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

''Cfa'') with cool winters and hot summers, with the majority of precipitation falling in spring, between the months of April and June. Bartlesville lies in

Tornado Alley Tornado Alley, also known as Tornado Valley, is a loosely defined location of the central United States and, in the 21st century, Canada where tornadoes are most frequent. The term was first used in 1952 as the title of a research project to st ...

, meaning that severe weather, including tornadoes, can occur. Severe weather occurs most often in the spring months, and occurs with much less frequency throughout the rest of the year. The city lies within USDA plant hardiness zone 7a ().

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 34,748 people, 14,565 households, and 9,831 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 16,091 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 82.09%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 3.20%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 7.18% Native American, 0.96% Asian, 0.02%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 1.02% from other races, and 5.54% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino people of any race were 3.02% of the population. There were 14,565 households, out of which 30.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.9% were married couples living together, 9.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.5% were non-families. 29.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 14.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.35 and the average family size was 2.89. In the city, the population was spread out, with 24.9% under the age of 18, 8.1% from 18 to 24, 24.8% from 25 to 44, 23.7% from 45 to 64, and 18.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 90.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.1 males. The median income for a household in the city was $47,195, and the median income for a family was $56,432. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the city was $27,417. About 17.3% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

. As of 2010 Bartlesville had a population of 35,750. The racial and ethnic composition of the population was 79.0% White (76.1% non-Hispanic), 3.1% Black or African American, 8.7% Native American, 1.4% Asian (0.4% Indian, 0.3% Chinese, 0.2% Vietnamese), 2.1% reporting some other race, 5.7% reporting two or more races and 5.9% Hispanic or Latino (4.5% Mexican, 0.3% Spanish or Spaniard, 0.2% Puerto Rican).

Economy

Oklahoma's first commercial oil well, the Nellie Johnstone, discovered oil on 15 April 1897 along a bank of the Caney River, near Bartlesville. Before its merger with

had its headquarters in Bartlesville. After ConocoPhillips formed, the combined company established a global systems and services office in Bartlesville.ConocoPhillips Announces Museum Plans For Ponca City and Bartlesville
." ConocoPhillips. May 13, 2005. Retrieved on January 22, 2010. ConocoPhillips spun most of its operations not related to exploration and production to form a new company,

, in 2012. The two companies combined employ or contract with more than 3,800 people in the area. Chevron Phillips also has an office here. Phillips Petroleum had a large presence in Bartlesville. A writer for the Tacoma (Washington) '' News Tribune'' said, "I never quite understood why the town where I spent my high school years wasn't named Phillipsburg. Nearly everything else in town was named after the Phillips Petroleum company or its founder". The Bartlesville area has two industrial parks, the Bartlesville Industrial Park and the Sunset Industrial Park. The Bartlesville Industrial Park landed a multi-million dollar lithium-ion battery recycling plant in September 2023.

Tourism

Price Tower, designed by

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...

, stands in downtown Bartlesville. It is Wright's only realized

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...

, and one of only two vertically oriented Wright structures extant (the other is the S.C. Johnson Wax Research Tower in

Racine, Wisconsin Racine ( ) is a city in Racine County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the shore of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Root River (Wisconsin), Root River, south of Milwaukee and north of Chicago. It is the List ...

). The nearby Bartlesville Community Center, designed by

William Wesley Peters William Wesley Peters (June 12, 1912 – July 17, 1991) was an American architect and engineer, apprentice to and protégé of his father-in-law Frank Lloyd Wright. Early life Wes, as he was known to friends and associates, was born in Terre Hau ...

, one of Wright's students, hosts OKM Music, an annual week-long music event in June. Begun in 1985 as the "OK Mozart" International Festival, and organized around the music of

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...

, the festival featured performances of classical music, jazz, light opera, and more. World-renowned musicians who have performed at OK Mozart include

Itzhak Perlman Itzhak Perlman (; born August 31, 1945) is an Israeli-American violinist. He has performed worldwide and throughout the United States, in venues that have included a state dinner for Elizabeth II at the White House in 2007, and at the First ina ...

, Joyce Yang, Joshua Bell, and André Watts. Around 2018 the festival renamed itself OKM Music to signify that it was broadening its range beyond the predominantly classical music it had featured for much of its 33-year history. The Community Center also hosts the concerts presented by the Bartlesville Community Concert Association. The city also hosts several annual festivals and shows, nearly all focused in the downtown.Downtown Bartlesville Inc. Sunfest is the first weekend of June. It includes an arts and crafts show, a music festival, a kids festival, and a classic cars show. A second classic air show and festival is held in the fall. An Oklahoma Indian Summer Festival is held at the Community Center downtown each fall. Bartlesville's downtown revitalization efforts are in full swing, with many blocks of the National Register Historic District, and the catalyst project, the once burned out May Brothers and 1904 Buildings, coming to completion at the downtown's center. The original Kress Building has been taken over by Bartlesville Monthly Magazine and restored. Downtown Bartlesville Inc., the Bartlesville Redevelopment Trust Authority, the Bartlesville Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Bartlesville Development Authority work in tandem to promote this thriving "Next City". Frank Phillips's former home is a museum maintained by the Oklahoma Historical Society. His ranch and retreat about southwest of Bartlesville is called Woolaroc (a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of the words ''woods'', ''lakes'', ''rocks''). A working ranch of , Woolaroc houses a museum exhibiting Phillips's extensive collections of Native American, western, and fine art. It holds one of the most complete private collections of Colt

firearms A firearm is any type of gun that uses an explosive charge and is designed to be readily carried and operated by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see legal definitions). The first firearms originated ...

in the world. The property includes the Phillips family's lodge and

mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type o ...

, along with a huge wildlife preserve with herds of

American bison The American bison (''Bison bison''; : ''bison''), commonly known as the American buffalo, or simply buffalo (not to be confused with Bubalina, true buffalo), is a species of bison that is endemic species, endemic (or native) to North America. ...

, elk, Texas longhorn cattle,

water buffalo The water buffalo (''Bubalus bubalis''), also called domestic water buffalo, Asian water buffalo and Asiatic water buffalo, is a large bovid originating in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Today, it is also kept in Italy, the Balkans ...

zebra Zebras (, ) (subgenus ''Hippotigris'') are African equines with distinctive black-and-white striped coats. There are three living species: Grévy's zebra (''Equus grevyi''), the plains zebra (''E. quagga''), and the mountain zebra (''E. ...

, and more than 20 other animal species. The Phillips Petroleum Company Museum shows the early days of petroleum production in Oklahoma and the evolution of Phillips Petroleum in that industry. Admission is free. A Wall of Honor is inside Washington Park Mall, with names of service members listed on panels beside cabinets that display military artifacts, photos, story boards, POW/ MIA listings, and other exhibits. A special display honors

Lance Corporal Lance corporal is a military rank, used by many English-speaking armed forces worldwide, and also by some police forces and other uniformed organisations. It is below the rank of corporal. Etymology The presumed origin of the rank of lance corp ...

Thomas A. Blair, Oklahoma's first casualty during the

Iraq War The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with 2003 invasion of Iraq, the invasion by a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition, which ...

. Bruce Goff designed ''Shin'enKan'' ("The House of the Far Away Heart") in 1956. Built for Joe D. Price as his house and studio, it was destroyed by fire in December 1996. Bartlesville is the home of multiple other Goff buildings, a home for the Price Pipe and Supply Family by Frank Lloyd Wright, and numerous homes by the Kansas City architect Edward Buehler Delk, most notably LaQuinta. The Conference Basketball tournament for The Great American Conference is hosted in Bartlesville.

Education

Oklahoma Wesleyan University, a private religious school affiliated with the Wesleyan Church, enrolls about 1,100 students at the main campus in Bartlesville, satellite locations, and online campuses. About 700 students attend the Rogers State University branch campus downtown. Career and technical training is provided by Tri County Technology Center, which offers several programs for high-school and adult students along with short-term courses. In December 2018, Tri-County Tech was recognized for performance excellence as one of the recipients of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Bartlesville Public Schools are in the Bartlesville Public School District (BPSD), also known as Independent School District 30. They include six elementary (PreK-5) sites, Central and Madison middle schools (6–8), and the high school (9–12). Within Washington County, almost all of Bartlesville is in the Bartlesville school district, while a few parts in the north are covered by Dewey Public Schools. In regards to sections in Osage County, parts are covered by the Bartlesville school district, while other parts are covered by Dewey Public Schools, and Osage Hills Public School. Private schools in Bartlesville include St. John School, a Catholic school of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tulsa; Coram Deo Classical Academy, and the Wesleyan Christian School, which is affiliated with First Wesleyan Church and Paths to Independence, a school for children and adults with autism. Some students also attend Tulsa-area private high schools.

Infrastructure

Transportation

Bartlesville is served by two US Highways and one Oklahoma state highway: * US-75 is the primary north-south US highway through Bartlesville and Washington County. * US-60 is the primary east-west US highway in Bartlesville and Washington County. * SH-123.

Intercity bus service An intercity bus service (North American English) or intercity coach service (British English and Commonwealth English), also called a long-distance, express, over-the-road, commercial, long-haul, or highway bus or coach service, is a public t ...

is available through

Jefferson Lines Jefferson Lines (JL or JLI) is a regional intercity bus company operating in 14 states in the Midwest and the West of the United States. History The company is operated by Jefferson Partners L.P., located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Jefferson P ...

Airport and aviation

Bartlesville Municipal Airport sits on the city's west side on US-60 in Osage County. It is a single-runway airport. Runway 17/35 is a concrete runway that is 6,850' by 100'. It has terminal and fixed-base operations and is owned by the City of Bartlesville. In the early 1950s, the airport hosted commercial air transportation provided by Central Airlines. Commercial air transportation is now available at Tulsa International Airport, about 45 miles south.

Railroad

Bartlesville is served by the South Kansas & Oklahoma Railroad, a shortline carrier of Watco.

Notable people

* Boots Adams, business executive and civic philanthropist of Bartlesville, Oklahoma *

Bud Adams Kenneth Stanley "Bud" Adams Jr. (January 3, 1923 – October 21, 2013) was an American businessman who was the founder and owner of the Houston Oilers of the American Football League (AFL), of which he was also a co-founder. The franchise eve ...

, owner of the

Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. They play the ...

; enrolled

Cherokee The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...

, grew up in Bartlesville * Nancy Barrett, actress * Omar Browning, basketball player, 1948 United States men's Olympic basketball team head coach * Mark Costello, Oklahoma politician * Leo G. Cox, theologian * Patrick Cranshaw, actor * Ree Drummond, blogger and TV cook * Lyle Goodhue, scientist * Meredith Howard Harless, performer * Becky Hobbs, singer * Sven Erik Holmes, United States district judge * Ted Hsu, Member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario for the riding of Kingston and the Islands * Todd Ames Hunter, Texas politician, born in Bartlesville in 1953 * Bob Kurland, basketball player * Terrence Malick, cinema director * Tyson Meade, rock singer * Emeka Okafor, basketball player * Frank Phillips, founder of Phillips Petroleum * Kinga Philipps, actress/producer *

Mark Price William Mark Price (born February 15, 1964) is an American former professional basketball player and coach. The last coaching job he held was as head coach of the Charlotte 49ers men's basketball, Charlotte 49ers. As a four-time NBA All-Star and ...

, basketball player * Tim Pugh, baseball player * John Wesley Raley, minister and educator * Allen Rucker, writer * William Salyers, stage, screen and voice actor * Terry Saul, Choctaw/Chickasaw artist and educator * Louis Skurcenski, basketball player *

Gretchen Wyler Gretchen Wyler (born Gretchen Patricia Wienecke; February 16, 1932 – May 27, 2007) was an American actress and dancer. She was also an animal rights advocate and founder of the Genesis Awards for animal protection. Biography Early lif ...

, actress * Kathleen Zellner, attorney

In popular culture

The Bartlesville Barflies

barbershop quartet A barbershop quartet is a group of four singers who sing music in the barbershop style, characterized by four-part harmony without instrumental accompaniment (a cappella). The four voices are: the lead, the vocal part which typically carries t ...

were the inaugural champions of

SPEBSQSA The Barbershop Harmony Society, legally and historically named the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America, Inc. (SPEBSQSA), is the first of several organizations to promote and preserve barbersho ...

. The city served as the setting for much of Terrence Malick's 2012 film '' To the Wonder''. Portions of the movie '' Killers of the Flower Moon'' were filmed here.

References

External links

City of Bartlesville

Bartlesville Chamber of Commerce

Bartlesville news and community events

History of Bartlesville & Washington County

Bartlesville Area History Museum: Bartlesville Timeline (illustrated)

{{Authority control Cities in Oklahoma Cities in Osage County, Oklahoma Cities in Washington County, Oklahoma Populated places within the Cherokee Nation reservation Populated places within the Osage Nation reservation County seats in Oklahoma Tulsa metropolitan area Micropolitan areas of Oklahoma Populated places established in 1884 Sundown towns in Oklahoma Organic architecture Frank Lloyd Wright 1884 establishments in Indian Territory