On January 18, 1898, Tulsa was officially incorporated and elected Edward Calkins as the city's first mayor.

Tulsa was still a small town near the banks of the Arkansas River in 1901 when its first oil well, named Sue Bland No.
1, was established.
Much of the oil was discovered on land whose mineral rights were owned by members of the Osage Nation under a system of headrights.
By 1905, the discovery of the large Glenn Pool Oil Reserve (located approximately 15 miles south of downtown Tulsa and site of the present-day town of Glenpool) prompted a rush of entrepreneurs to the area's growing number of oil fields; Tulsa's population swelled to over 140,000 between 1901 and 1930.
Unlike the early settlers of Northeastern Oklahoma, who most frequently migrated from the South and Texas, many of these new oil-driven settlers came to Tulsa from the commercial centers of the East Coast and lower Midwest.
This migration distinguished the city's demographics from neighboring communities (Tulsa has larger and more prominent Catholic and Jewish populations than most Oklahoma cities) and is reflected in the designs of early Tulsa's upscale neighborhoods.

Known as the "Oil Capital of the World" for most of the 20th century, the city's success in the energy industry prompted construction booms in the popular Art Deco style of the time.
Profits from the oil industry continued through the Great Depression, helping the city's economy fare better than most in the United States during the 1930s.
On January 18, 1898, Tulsa was officially incorporated and elected Edward Calkins as the city's first mayor.
Tulsa was still a small town near the banks of the Arkansas River in 1901 when its first oil well, named Sue Bland No. 1, was established. Much of the oil was discovered on land whose mineral rights were owned by members of the Osage Nation under a system of headrights. By 1905, the discovery of the large Glenn Pool Oil Reserve (located approximately 15 miles south of downtown Tulsa and site of the present-day town of Glenpool) prompted a rush of entrepreneurs to the area's growing number of oil fields; Tulsa's population swelled to over 140,000 between 1901 and 1930. Unlike the early settlers of Northeastern Oklahoma, who most frequently migrated from the South and Texas, many of these new oil-driven settlers came to Tulsa from the commercial centers of the East Coast and lower Midwest. This migration distinguished the city's demographics from neighboring communities (Tulsa has larger and more prominent Catholic and Jewish populations than most Oklahoma cities) and is reflected in the designs of early Tulsa's upscale neighborhoods.
Known as the "Oil Capital of the World" for most of the 20th century, the city's success in the energy industry prompted construction booms in the popular Art Deco style of the time. Profits from the oil industry continued through the Great Depression, helping the city's economy fare better than most in the United States during the 1930s.
Tulsa, Oklahoma