An oil derrick is a framework or tower of wood or steel erected over the deep drill holes of oil wells, supporting the tackle used for boring, for raising and lowering drilling tools in the well, and for inserting and removing well casing. Derricks can also hoist and move heavy objects by means of a movable boom equipped with cables and pulleys connected to the base of an upright stationary beam. On April 15, 1897, in Indian Territory, the Nellie Johnstone No. 1 well was completed near Bartlesville, opening an era of oil exploration and development in what is now Oklahoma. Named for Nellie Johnstone Cannon, a descendant of Delaware Chief Charles Journeycake, the well was drilled on land granted to her by allotment through her Native American ancestry when she was six years old. The Nellie Johnstone No. 1 became the first commercially productive oil site in Oklahoma, and in 1917 Nellie Johnstone Cannon sold the land to the city of Bartlesville.
