image: Courtesy of the Oklahoma Historical Society

Established in 1923 in Tulsa, OK, to display the latest oil-industry technologies, the International Petroleum Exposition drew as many as 300,000 attendees in its heyday in the 1950s, when it adopted what would be its official mascot: the Golden Driller. At 76 feet tall, the giant symbol debuted in 1953, reappeared at the show in 1959, and finally became a perpetual fixture starting in 1966. The Golden Driller's reign was brief, however, as oil price spikes in the 1970s and competition from the upstart Offshore Technology Conference caused the show to dry up permanently after its 1979 iteration.