The Golden Driller—third largest statue in the United States

By Jack Brummet, Travel and Monuments Editor

The Golden Driller is a 76-foot-tall, 22 ton, statue of an oil worker, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  It is the third tallest statue in the United States, behind the Statue of Liberty, and Our Lady of the Rockies.
The Golden Driller was built in 1953 by the Mid-Continent Supply Company of Fort Worth for an International Petroleum Exposition. Six years later, it was erected again for a show. Due to the buzz it generated, the company donated the statue to the Tulsa County Fairgrounds  which had it permanently installed in front of the Tulsa Expo Center in 1966.  The statue's right hand rests on a decommissioned oil derrick from an oil field in Oklahoma.

The inscription  reads: "The Golden Driller, a symbol of the International Petroleum Exposition. Dedicated to the men of the petroleum industry who by their vision and daring have created from God's abundance a better life for mankind."  The driller is the official state monument of Oklahoma.

---o0o---