Santa Fe Depot
a.k.a. Drumright Oil Museum
Broadway and Harley Sts., Drumright, OKThe Santa Fe Depot is significant because (1) it represented the first railroad terminus in the Cushing Oil Field of Oklahoma and (2) it served the city of Drumright, Oklahoma for almost 50 years as a freight and passenger train focal point.
The Santa Fe and Oil Field Railroad was the first railroad to enter the vast Cushing Oil Field of Oklahoma. It provided transportation for oil field equipment including engines, casing pipe, heavy tools, and massive boilers weighing seven tons. Furthermore oil industry businessmen were able to reach the field much more quickly than in previous years when the only transportation into the field was by horse and wagon via dirt roads.
Frank Brown and R.D. Long, two Drumright businessmen, saw the need for improved transportation into the Cushing Oil Field because there was only one dirt road leading into the core area of the Cushing Oil Field, north of Drumright. The dirt road became a quagmire during wet weather and three deep creeks had to be forded by teams of horses and wagons.
Brown and Long began construction of a railroad line from Cushing, twelve miles to the west of the oil field, toward Drumright, site of the first wells in the field. After securing the right-of-ways, they sold their holdings to the Santa Fe Railroad for $500,000. Santa Fe named its acquisition the Santa Fe and Oil Field Railroad, and completed the long awaited line from Cushing to Drumright on June 10, 1915.
Construction of the Santa Fe Depot began April 1, 1915 and was completed January 1, 1916. The depot handled oil field equipment freight, passenger service, and tank cars which hauled the Cushing crude oil to refineries in Texas, Kansas, and Indiana.
The Santa Fe Depot continued both freight and passenger service until June, 1930. Declining oil production forced Santa Fe to reduce its service to mixed freight and passenger service until June 3, 1946 when passenger service was discontinued. Freight service was continued until January, 1964 when the depot and railroad line were terminated by Santa Fe. The depot was given to the city of Drumright which restored the building and converted it into the Drumright Oil Field Museum which has housed oil field memorabilia for the past 16 years.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1981.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.