Ponca City, Oklahoma

The statue of oilman E. W. Marland, founder of Marland Oil (later Conoco), who later was elected as a U.S. congressman and Oklahoma governor

Ponca City's history and economy has been shaped chiefly by the ebb and flow of the petroleum industry. E. W. Marland, a Pennsylvania oil man, came to Oklahoma and founded the Marland Oil Company, which once controlled about 10% of the world's oil reserves.[9] He founded the 101 Ranch Oil Company, located on the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch, and drilled his first successful oil well on land he leased in 1911 from the Ponca tribe of American Indians.[10] He was elected in 1932 as a U.S. congressman and in 1934 as governor of Oklahoma.

Marland's exploitation of oil reserves generated growth and wealth that were previously unimaginable on the Oklahoma prairie, and his company virtually built the city from the ground up. Marland and his associates built mansions to display their new wealth, including the Grand Home and the E.W. Marland Estate (once called the "Palace on the Prairie"). Because of this period of wealth and affluence, Ponca City has a high concentration of buildings that exemplify the popular Spanish Colonial Revival architecture of the period, as well as Art Deco-influenced buildings and homes.

The "Roaring '20s" came to an end for Ponca City shortly before the Great Depression. After a successful takeover bid by J.P. Morgan, Jr., son of financier J.P. Morgan, Marland Oil Co. merged with Continental Oil Co. in the late 1920s.[10] It was known as Conoco for more than 70 years. The company maintained its headquarters in Ponca City until 1949 and continued to grow into a global corporation.

During the oil boom years of the 1980s, Conoco was owned by the DuPont Corp., which took control of the company in 1981.[10] After nearly two decades of ownership and an oil bust that crippled Oklahoma's economy in the late 1980s, DuPont sold off its Conoco assets in 1998.[10] In 2002, Conoco had merged with Phillips Petroleum (another major petroleum player with roots in northern Oklahoma) to become ConocoPhillips.[10] ConocoPhillips was then the sixth-largest publicly traded oil company in the world, and the third largest in the United States.[10] It maintains a significant presence in its historic home state.

Since the company has reduced its workforce and facilities in the city, the population has declined steadily since the early 1990s. In February 2009, ConocoPhillips announced that all of its remaining nonrefinery operations in Ponca City (representing 750 jobs) would be moved out of the city.[11] The city's recent efforts to grow its economy beyond the petroleum industry have attracted a number of technology, manufacturing, and service jobs.

In 2005, ConocoPhillips announced plans to build a $5 million museum across from its Ponca City refinery. Opened to the public in May 2007, the Conoco Museum features artifacts, photographs, and other historical items related to the petroleum industry and its culture in northern Oklahoma. A sister museum, Phillips Petroleum Company Museum, was to be opened in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Funded by a private foundation, the Conoco Museum charges no admission fee.

In 2012, ConocoPhillips split into two separate companies, with the upstream portion retaining the ConocoPhillips name and the refining and transportation portions taking the name Phillips 66.

Based in Houston, Texas, Phillips 66 continues to operate a 200,000-barrel-per-day refinery. in Ponca City.

The statue of Standing Bear honors the Ponca chief who successfully argued in U.S. District Court in a landmark civil rights case in 1879 that Native Americans are "persons within the meaning of the law" and have the rights of citizenship.

Native American young people are holding flags of their tribes at the dedication of the Standing Bear Museum.

Until recently, European Americans' accounts of their settlement and the growth of the oil industry in Ponca City have often overshadowed both the long ancient history of indigenous peoples in the area, and those tribes who were resettled to Oklahoma in the 19th century under Indian Removal.

Ponca City is named after the Ponca tribe, part of whom were relocated from Nebraska to northern Oklahoma from 1877 to 1880. Like all of the forced American Indian removals of the 19th century, the Poncas' trek was arduous. Followed by the government's failure to provide adequate supplies and malaria at their destination, nearly one-third of the Ponca died from illness and exposure. "Out of 700 Ponca who left the Nebraska reservation, 158 died in Oklahoma within two years."[12]

The Ponca protested their conditions. An additional irritant occurred upon the death of Standing Bear's oldest son in 1879. The chief had promised to bury him in his homeland, and about 60 Ponca accompanied him back to Nebraska. The US Army was ordered to arrest them for having left the reservation, and they were confined to Fort Omaha. Most of the tribal members who left eventually returned to the reservation in Oklahoma.[13] With the aid of prominent attorneys working pro bono, Standing Bear filed a writ of habeas corpus challenging his arrest. The case of Standing Bear v. Crook (1879) was a landmark decision in the US District Court, where the judge ruled that Indians had the same legal rights as other United States citizens.

A statue was erected in his honor at the intersection of Highway 60 and Standing Bear Parkway in Ponca City. In the late 20th century, the city developed a park and museum named in his honor.

The Ponca Nation, which has kept its headquarters south of Ponca City since 1879, played a major part in the development of the Marland Oil Company and the city. Chief White Eagle leased resource-containing portions of the tribe's allotted land to E.W. Marland in 1911 for oil exploration and development.

Since the late 20th century, the Ponca tribe has worked to build its infrastructure and improve services for its people. In February 2006, the tribe received a grant of more than $800,000 from the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community of Minnesota for debt retirement and economic development.

Nearby north-central tribes are the Kaw, Osage, Otoe-Missouria, Pawnee, and Tonkawa. These are all federally recognized tribes, as is the Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma. In 1994, the six tribes established the Standing Bear Foundation and Pow-wow, beginning the first of annual shared pow-wows, to which they invite the public. They wanted to build collaboration among the tribes and with the non-Native residents of Ponca City. The pow-wow is now held in Standing Bear Park.

A historic photo of a wide tornado funnel taken near Ponca City between 1890 and 1920

The Ponca City region of Oklahoma is part of "Tornado Alley". Tornadoes are most common in April, May, and June. Ponca City faces very hot and humid summers known to average over 100 °F (38 °C), as well as severe storms. During the winters, Ponca City has mostly mild to strong winters with snowstorms and ice.

Ponca City hosted minor league baseball from the 1920s through the 1950s. The Ponca City Poncans played from 1923–26, the Ponca City Angels played from 1934–1938 (winning three Western Association championships) and the Ponca City Dodgers (an affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers) operated from 1947–1952, Finally, the Ponca City Jets played in the Sooner State League in 1954, only to be replaced by a new club called the Ponca City Cubs in 1955, the last season of professional baseball in Ponca City.

• 101 Ranch Memorial
• Cann Memorial Botanical Gardens
• Conoco Museum
• Kaw Lake
• Lake Ponca
• Lew Wentz Public Pool and Golf Course
• Marland Grand Home
• E. W. Marland Mansion
• Ponca Tribe headquarters
• Standing Bear Memorial

Ponca City is home to several landmarks on the National Register of Historic Places, including the Poncan Theatre, the Marland Mansion, and Marland's Grand Home. Ponca City also holds several regional events each year.

The Pioneer Woman statue was modeled by sculptor Bryant Baker and was unveiled in a public ceremony on April 22, 1930.

Ponca City is the site of the Pioneer Woman Museum and the Pioneer Woman statue. The statue was erected to commemorate women pioneers. In the early 1920s, E. W. Marland decided to create a statue commemorating the pioneer woman.[21] Marland was reportedly asked, "E. W., why don't you have ... a statue to the vanishing American, a Ponca, Otoe, or an Osage - a monument of great size?" Marland answered, "the Indian is not the vanishing American - it's the pioneer woman."[21] He sponsored a competition for the winning statue.

In 1927, miniature 3 feet (0.9 m) sculptures were submitted as part of a competition by 12 U.S. and international sculptors: John Gregory, Maurice Sterne, Hermon Atkins MacNeil, James Earle Fraser, Alexander Stirling Calder, Wheeler Williams, Mario Korbel, F. Lynn Jenkins, Mahonri Young, Arthur Lee, Jo Davidson, and Bryant Baker. They were displayed in 12 cities around the state, where they were viewed by 750,000 people, who voted for their favorite. The original submissions have been on display at the museum at Woolaroc near Bartlesville, Oklahoma since the 1930s. Marland sold them to Frank Phillips after losing control of the Marland Oil Company.

British-born American sculptor Bryant Baker was chosen as the winner. His full-scale work was unveiled in a public ceremony on April 22, 1930. About 40,000 guests came to hear Will Rogers pay tribute to Oklahoma's pioneers. The statue is 27 feet (8.2 m) high and weighs 12,000 lb.

A related museum commemorating Oklahoma women was opened on September 16, 1958, on the 65th anniversary of the Cherokee Strip land run.[22] It recognizes the work of Native American, as well as European-American women, and their leadership and stamina in creating homes, raising children, and taking care of the work of sustaining life and communities.

Ponca City Public Schools serves the general population's education requirements. Ponca City Public Schools serve over 5100 students.

High schools

• Ponca City High School (Po-Hi) - serves all 9th- through 12th-grade students in the school district.
• Ombudsman Alternative Education Center had provided select students the option to take a mostly technology-based route through high school. It was closed after the end of the academic year of 2012-2013.
• WildCat Academy Program, starting in the 2013–2014 year, became the new alternative school for high-school students in the area. Sponsoring the Ponca City WildCat logo, it had changes from the Ombudsman and past alternative schools.

Middle schools

• East Middle School serves Ponca City's estimated 380 eighth-grade students in the Ponca City Public School system.
• West Middle School serves most of the district's sixth- and seventh-grade students.

Elementary schools

Ponca City has currently eight elementary schools to serve the district's pre-K through fifth-grade students:

• Garfield Elementary
• Liberty Elementary
• Lincoln Elementary
• Roosevelt Elementary
• Trout Elementary
• Union Elementary
• McCord Elementary (has a sixth grade )
• Washington Elementary became the Alternative School, but was closed at the end of the 2009-2010 school year. The school later reopened in 2015 as an elementary school.
• Woodlands Elementary

Ponca City has three private schools that serve students from pre-K through eighth grade:

• Ponca City Christian Academy
• First Lutheran School
• St. Mary's Catholic School

• Pioneer Technology Center serves high school and adult students from throughout the surrounding area. PTC also has co-operative degree programs with Northern Oklahoma College and Cowley County Community College
• University Center (UC) at Ponca City offers interactive television classes from several area universities, including Northern Oklahoma College and Northwestern Oklahoma State University. In 2018, the UC began an ambitious project seeking to create STEM opportunities for younger students to encourage a higher-education pursuit. In December 2018, Phillips66 awarded the UC an $85,000 grant for the purchase of additional robotics kits and equipment to further develop the UC's STEM initiatives.

Research facilities

• Ponca City is the headquarters for Oklahoma State University's University Multispectral Laboratory.

The Ponca City region receives electricity generated hydroelectrically at Kaw Lake, a United States Army Corps of Engineers project. The facility, located 7 mi (11 km) east of Ponca City, dams the Arkansas River. The electric utility is managed by the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority of Edmond, Oklahoma.

The city is accessible by I-35, US-60, US-77, US-177 and OK-11.

On Grand Avenue (Business US-60), a series of new lamp posts is intended to look more classic. This project also replaced every traffic light along Grand Avenue except the traffic signals at 14th St. and at Waverly to match the new lamp posts.[23]

Ponca City Regional Airport (airport code PNC) (1007 feet above mean sea level) is located at the northwest corner of the city at 36°43.84'N and 97°5.99'W. The facility has a 7,201-ft 17-35 runway, which is 150 ft (46 m) wide, and the facility has a full-length taxiway but no tower. The local airport booster club hosts a fly-in breakfast every first Saturday of the month, year around, "rain or shine".

Commercial air transportation is available out of Stillwater Regional Airport about 40 miles to the south,[24] Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport about 89 miles to the north,[25] or Tulsa International Airport about 101 miles to the southeast.[26]