American Notes Oklahoma

With so many of their farms and oil businesses going bust, Oklahomans may have begun to feel that the sprightly lyrics "You're doin' fine, Oklahoma! Oklahoma, O.K." of the famous Rodgers and Hammerstein tune suddenly sound tinny and surreal. The state was beset by 13 bank failures in 1985, more than in any year since the Depression, as well as more than 6,000 bankruptcies and farm-loan defaults. Still, Sooners were not prepared for the latest bad news: the oil well on the lawn of the state capitol in Oklahoma City has gone dry. Nicknamed Petunia when drilled in a flower bed in 1942, the well and the derrick atop it became a symbol of Oklahoma's boom times. Drawing from an oil pool directly beneath the capitol, Petunia pumped some 1.5 million bbl. during its 43 years.

Though the well's majority owner, Phillips Petroleum Co., quietly closed down Petunia's oil production last April, for public relations purposes Phillips will continue to tap the well's small yield of natural gas. Thus, as the Tulsa Tribune put it, "Oklahoma still has a distinction as a capitol: two sources of gas, one underground and one in the legislature."