OKMULKE, Oklv. – A film, titled “Sarah’s Oil”, recently began shooting in Okmulgee on July 10. It is a historical film based on the life of oil magnate Sarah Rector. Rector was a freedman through her parents, who, along with her and her siblings, received land through the Dawes Act due to their Creek ancestry. Born in 1902 in what was then Indian Territory, Rector lived an ordinary life until she was 11 years old. It was then when her father leased her portion of the land to an oil company, and soon after, oil was discovered. Rector quickly grew rich from the oil profits, which were pouring out at around 2500 barrels a day in some reports from the time.
In fact, some reports list her as making as much as $300 per day, the modern equivalent of just over $9,500 today. Her wealth was so incredible that, according to some sources, there was an effort made by the Oklahoma state legislature to have her declared racially as white, so as to allow her to enjoy her wealth by sitting in first class on trains.
With this extraordinary wealth, however, came negative attention. Rumors began to spread about her, how she was being mismanaged by her parents, how she was uneducated, and how she was living in squalor. None of which were true.
A millionaire by the time she was 18, Rector would eventually move to a mansion in Kansas City, eventually building a fortune in oil wells, real estate, and at least one successful business in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Living in what would be known as the Rector Mansion, she would become known for living an extravagant lifestyle, even after the Great Depression cost her a fair amount of her fortune. She would even entertain numerous famous individuals, including musicians like Count Basie and Duke Ellington. She would go on to marry two separate times, having numerous children, and eventually passing away in 1967 at the age of 65. She is buried in the Taft Cemetery in Oklahoma.
The movie “Sarah’s Oil” is produced by Kingdom Story Company. It is directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh and written by Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh. Other recent local productions in the Okmulgee area include the Emmy-nominated television series “Reservation Dogs”. The fascinating story behind the successful young Mvskoke oil baroness will now have the opportunity to be seen on the big screen.
