Golden Driller Statue

The Mid-Continent Supply Company built the original Golden Driller in 1953 as a temporary trade-show display for the International Petroleum Exposition (IPE), which was held in Tulsa every several years through the mid-20th century. The statue was constructed in a steel-and-plaster method common for 1950s industrial trade-show pieces — a steel armature welded to a heavy base, then sculpted plaster and concrete laid over the frame in layers. The 1953 version was painted gold for the trade-show floor.

The statue was disassembled after the 1953 IPE, stored, and re-erected for the 1959 IPE. After 1959 the Mid-Continent Supply Company donated the statue permanently to the Tulsa State Fair board, which paid to have the entire thing professionally rebuilt for permanent outdoor installation in 1966. The 1966 reconstruction is essentially the version that stands today — same proportions, same color, same pose, but engineered for permanent weatherproofing.

At 76 feet tall (about as tall as a seven-story building), 43,500 pounds, and a stance designed to withstand 200 mph winds (a Tulsa requirement given the tornado risk), the Driller is genuinely a feat of midcentury industrial sculpture. His right hand rests on an actual oil derrick — a real one salvaged from a Seminole County, Oklahoma oil well — which makes him simultaneously a sculpture and a partial industrial-archaeology installation.

In 1979 the Oklahoma state legislature passed a resolution naming the Golden Driller the official state monument. The designation was simultaneously a piece of regional civic humor and a serious gesture: Oklahoma's 20th-century identity was shaped by the oil industry more thoroughly than any other state's, and the Driller is a clear and unembarrassed visual representation of that. He has been the official state monument continuously since 1979.

The Driller's belt buckle reads simply "TULSA" — making him doubly a Tulsa landmark and a state landmark. The combination of state monument status and continuous active use as a city mascot has kept him in good repair across more than half a century. State and city funds have paid for periodic repainting and structural maintenance; the most recent significant restoration was in 2011.

Other states have official monuments — the Pennsylvania Keystone, the Texas Lone Star, the Maine Acadia National Park — but few have a 76-foot painted oilman.

The Golden Driller's working function as a city mascot is performed primarily through periodic costume changes. Local civic groups, sports teams, election campaigns, and corporate sponsors arrange to outfit the statue for specific occasions. The most-discussed costumes in recent years have included a full-scale custom face mask during the COVID-19 pandemic (when the entire statue was outfitted with a mask to encourage public masking in Tulsa), Oklahoma State Cowboys and University of Tulsa team jerseys for college football championship runs, presidential candidate T-shirts during election cycles, and full Santa Claus regalia during the Christmas season.

The costume changes are usually short-lived — most installations stay up for a few days to two weeks — and are documented by local Tulsa media as news events. The Tulsa World runs an annual feature on the year's most memorable Driller costumes. Plan a visit during a costume change if you can; it adds significantly to the photo opportunity.

The Expo Square staff coordinate most of the costume changes through a small budget and volunteer time. The custom face mask in 2020 reportedly cost about $2,500 in material and labor and was paid for by a small Tulsa nonprofit.

The Golden Driller stands at the corner of 21st Street and Yale Avenue, at the south entrance to Expo Square. The site is open 24 hours, completely free, with a small parking lot directly in front of the statue. Most visitors are in and out in 10 to 20 minutes — long enough to walk around the statue, photograph from several angles, and read the plaques at the base. The site is not staffed and there is no museum on site.

For photography, the best angle depends on the light. Morning sun is on the statue's face (eastern exposure). Afternoon sun lights the south-facing side and produces the dramatic deep shadows that make for the most flattering photos. Sunset gives the best color but the light is gone by the time the photo is processed; arrive 30 minutes before sunset for the best window. Tornado seasons in spring and early summer occasionally produce dramatic storm-cloud backdrops behind the statue — Tulsa photographers wait for these.

The standard tourist photo is a wide-angle shot with a person standing at the base to give scale. The Driller's right boot is roughly the size of a small car; standing next to it produces a useful sense of how massive the statue actually is. For an aerial perspective, the parking lot has clear sight lines from several positions.

The Driller is roughly five minutes from the original Route 66 alignment along 11th Street. The natural pairing is with a Route 66 driving day that starts at the Cyrus Avery Centennial Plaza on Southwest Boulevard, runs the historic 11th Street alignment through the Tulsa Arts District and the Blue Dome District, and then detours south to the Driller for the photo before continuing east toward Catoosa and the Blue Whale.

The Driller's site also sits next to the Tulsa State Fairgrounds (Expo Square), which hosts the Tulsa State Fair every September and a year-round calendar of events including livestock shows, monster truck rallies, gun shows, and home and garden expos. If you visit during the State Fair (late September through the first week of October), the Driller is at the gates of one of Oklahoma's largest annual events; he is the photo backdrop for tens of thousands of fairgoers.

For Route 66 photography aficionados, the Driller pairs well with the Blue Dome gas station (downtown), the Avery Plaza East Meets West sculpture (also Route 66), and the Tulsa Route 66 Historical Village's 194-foot oil derrick (West Tulsa) for a full day of Tulsa Route 66 landmark photography.