This A-to-Z treatment of Oklahoma history, geography, and lore features magnificent full-color contemporary photography throughout-along with intriguing historical black-and-whites. Region by region, the authors chronicle the varied landforms, along with the people from ancient times to today. Here are the major cities and the small towns, their stories, their colorful characters, the triumphs and tragedies, the dramas and comedies.

Oklahoma: The Land and Its People

Arts & Photography

Franks, Kenny A.

Lambert, Paul F.

Photography & Video

University of Oklahoma Press

In light of the importance of oil and gas in California, perhaps the discovery of gold there should be viewed as just a flash in the pan. By 1938, the cumulative value of all the gold found in the state stood at something more than two billion dollars, while the cumulative value of the oil and gas produced was more than double that sum—well over five billion dollars. The story of California oil deserves to be told, and pictures tell it best. The more than three hundred photographs in this book vividly portray the development of California’s rich and colorful petroleum industry from the early exploration of the mid-nineteenth century through the boom years of the first four decades of the twentieth. Although Indians and Spanish explorers had known of and used local oil seepages for centuries and the search for commercial production had begun on several fronts in the 1850s, the actual birth date of California’s oil industry may be set as 1865, with the first commercial sale of oil refined in the state (by the Stanford brothers) from a well drilled in the state (on the Matthole River in Humboldt County). The fascinating text and the impressive array of photographs here assembled reveal the variety and vigor of the development that ensued: from the “world’s smallest producing lease,” on Signal Hill, to the derricks sharing Huntington Beach with the bathers, to the millions of mice infesting the Taft oil field in 1926–27; from the mounted patrols keeping livestock out of the Coalinga fields to the blinking light on a fence warning motorists of a well in the middle of a Los Angeles street. First among the states in oil production in eighteen of the first thirty years of the twentieth century, California experienced a boom of immense proportions and extraordinary diversity. These illustrations, along with contemporary descriptions by many of those who worked the fields and a wealth of detail provided by the authors, graphically portray the scenes and characters of California’s second great mineral rush. An epilogue takes the boom up to the present, highlighting the shift in production to the offshore leases and the controversy surrounding them.

Early California Oil: A Photographic History, 1865-1940 (Kenneth E. Montague Series in Oil and Business History)

Business & Money

Industries

Texas A&M University Press

The oil and gas industry in Louisiana and Arkansas has played as great a role in the shaping of the destinies of those two states as any other factor. Here, in 325 contemporary photographs, many of them never before published, is an eyewitness record of the early years of that industry. The rich oil legacy of the region had been noticed centuries ago when the area’s Indians used natural oil seeps as sources of medicinal oil for themselves and their animals. Non-Indians became aware of the presence of crude in the early 1800’s, and by 1860 several petroleum-rich sites had been located in Louisiana. In 1901, W. Scott Heywood’s discovery of the huge Jennings Oil Field thrust Louisiana to the forefront in American oil production. Other discoveries in Louisiana followed rapidly; Caddo Lake, Homor, Cotton Valley, the tremendous Monroe gas field, and many smaller pools contributed their share to the great flood of oil and gas from the state. Eventually the search for crude crossed the state boundary into southern Arkansas, and a new boom began there in the 1920’s. Though a small portion of that state was involved with the industry, the volume of oil from El Dorado, Smackover, and other fields in the surrounding southwestern counties brought Arkansas, too, into the upper ranks of oil producers. The giant tri-state Rodessa Field, shared by Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas, continued the initial boom, but just as production began to slow, technological innovations opened entirely new horizons among the coastal salt domes and offshore, and the rush for black gold began anew. Finding and drilling for oil in Louisiana and Arkansas was no easy matter, as these photographs show. The pineywoods thickets of southern Arkansas, the overgrown likeshores and river bottoms of northern Louisiana, the swamps and marshes of the coastal region, and later the deep waters out of sight of land presented constant new challenges, contributing immeasurably to the development of their region and to the advancement of oil technology and the industry.

Early Louisiana and Arkansas Oil: A Photographic History, 1901-1946 (Volume 3) (Kenneth E. Montague Series in Oil and Business History)

Unique in both geology and geography, Washington County was one of Oklahoma's first oil-producing areas. The area was home to pre-historic Native Americans, some of whom, like the Missippian Mound Builders, left tangible evidence of their presence. Modern Washington County is unique-a thriving county built around Bartlesville features major tourist and cultural attractions-Copan Lake, the Frank Phillips Home, and the OK Mozart Music Festival.

Washington County: A Centennial History

Campbell, Gini Moore

Paul Lambert

Kenny Arthur Franks

Teague, Margaret W.

History

Oklahoma Heritage Association

Abe Lemons won 599 games and produced several All-Americans as one of the country's premier major college basketball coaches from 1955 to 1990. Along the way, at Oklahoma City University, Pan American University, and the University of Texas, Abe became the most quoted basketball coach ever. USA Today chose Abe's famous line, "Doctors bury their mistakes, ours are still on scholarship," as the sports quote of the century. However, the thousands of quotable, hilarious remarks make up only a small part of the life of Abe Lemons. Behind the funny-man exterior is a superb basketball mind. Abe understands the most minute intricacies of the game. He could develop a defense to shut down any offense. Some have said Abe s skill of coaching basketball players on offense was unparalleled in the history of the game. Often his teams were among the national leaders in scoring.

Abe Lemons: Court Magician

Sports & Outdoors

Burke, Bob

Dabney, Eric

Basketball

Bryce Harlow was one of the most extraordinary political figures in the United States in the second half of the 20th century. He served four Presidents with honor and distinction. 
Dr. Henry Kissinger observes that Harlow spent his entire life studying the ways of Washington, D.C., alternating between participant and observer.

Bryce Harlow: Mr. Integrity (Oklahoma trackmaker)

Biographies & Memoirs

Thompson, Ralph G.

Regional U.S.

Oklahoma Heritage Assn

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Books by Franks, Kenny A.