Photo by: D. Brown
Dominic Brown
Lantern Staff
For this week’s iteration of “This Week in El Dorado,” the Butler Lantern staff visited the Kansas Oil Museum on East Central Ave. on Tuesday, Feb 28. Just east of downtown El Dorado, it isn’t an location easy to miss, with hulking extracting equipment and a historic Oil Boom Town peaking above the tree line, so it’s easy to spot for anybody. Originally, the Oil Museum was apart of the Butler County Historic society in 1956. However, when the old city hall building opened, the Kansas Oil Museum moved in, in the mid-70’s. Upon entering the building, you are immediately greeted by friendly, knowledgeable staff. Mike Tracy, an employee at the Kansas Oil Museum, welcomed me and offered me a quick tour of the museum.
The museum features the Legacy Wall, immediately to the left as you enter the main room. This is a wall of individuals who are important to the history of the oil industry. Next to the Legacy Wall is the Curiouser Curiouser exhibits. Here the museum sets out and rotates unique items it has received over the years.
“What a lot of people don’t know is apart from what’s already out on display, museums have plenty of items in storage,” Tracy said. “It’s always good to rotate exhibits.”
Across the main lobby, there is a research library.
“There’s micro film, geology reports, oil history, school history and county history,” Tracy said.
There is also a conference room for visiting organizations to hold meetings. After paying a visit to the Orientation Theater, you’ll pass through a door and enter the main exhibit.
The main exhibit is split into two parts. This first half you pass through contains displays and information about the history of the county. Here you can learn about the early beginnings of settlers in Kansas. The second part contains the history and the impact the oil history had on Kansas. The outside exhibit is an actual boom town featuring the first building in Butler County erected in 1857 along with two working oil rigs.
Standouts of the museum include the content, staff and price. The museum is filled with interesting and impressive exhibits. There’s an interactive wall in the oil portion as well as multiple buildings in the back that you can actually walk through to see how the old machinery operated. The museum will actually fire up the rigs during special occasions, so the fact that one can actually witness its operation is very impressive. The staff is knowledgeable and friendly, and the price is inexpensive for hours of entertainment.
On Saturday, April 29, the museum will hold their “Rockfest,” a geology themed event portraying living history with costumes and games.
The hours of operation vary from Tuesday-Friday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (summer hours), Saturday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. (winter hours)
For more information visit http://www n.kansasoilmuseum.org.
