The Golden Driller, a seventy-six-foot statue of an oil worker at Tulsa’s Expo Square, reflects the city’s deep ties to the petroleum industry. Built on a steel frame with concrete and plaster and posed beside an oil derrick from a depleted Seminole oil field, it evolved from temporary figures made for International Petroleum Expositions in nineteen fifty-two and nineteen fifty-nine. Donated after attracting public attention, it was redesigned and permanently installed for the nineteen sixty-six exposition. In nineteen seventy-nine, the Oklahoma Legislature made it the state monument. Over time it also became a widely recognized cultural symbol, inspiring promotions, temporary alterations, and even a replica in France.

Tulsa, Oklahoma · USA