Million Dollar Elm

Million Dollar Elm is an Oklahoma historical marker in Osage County.

Osage County · on grounds of Osage Nation campus in Pawhuska

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The Osage Nation held the first public auction sale for oil leases on reservation tracts on November 11, 1912. Early sales were held under this elm tree. Bidders sat on bleachers around the tree and the auctioneer, Colonel E. Walters, ‘cried’ the sales. A total of 16 160-acre tracts leased for a bonus of over $1 million. Thus, this tree under which these high bids were made became known as the “Million Dollar Elm.”

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Marker data: Oklahoma Historical Society, Historical Marker Program. Marker texts come from the Society's marker database, reproduced with the Society's written permission. Where the database describes a marker's location in words but records no coordinate, the pin on this page is ours, worked out from that description and marked approximate.
Sponsored by Harry G. Benson and Family
This marker on the program's own site

More markers nearby

Oil in the Osage Indian Nation and the “Million Dollar Elm”under 1 mi
St. Louis School for Osage Indian Girlsunder 1 mi
Osage Agencyunder 1 mi
Osage Chief Fred Lookout3 mi

On the National Register nearby

Osage Agency120 ft

Places within about 300 feet of this marker that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A nearby listing is not always the marker's own subject.