The Osage Tribe of Indians held the first public auction sale for oil leases on Osage Reservation tracts on November 11, 1912, and early sales took place under an elm tree where bidders sat on bleachers around the tree while the auctioneer, Colonel E. Walters, cried the sales. The first sale in which a 160-acre tract brought a bonus of $1,000,000 or more occurred on March 2, 1922, when one tract brought $1,335,000 and another brought $1,160,000. On March 18, 1924, the opening bid on a 160-acre tract was $1,000,000, and the largest bonus ever paid for a tract was $1,990,000 on March 19, 1924. A total of 18 160-acre tracts leased for a bonus of over $1,000,000, and the tree under which these high bids were made became known as the Million Dollar Elm.