Ponca City and Kay County, Oklahoma

Continental Oil Company employees. 1942-1945.

Conoco-Phillips

American World War II Heritage City

Ponca City and Kay County, Oklahoma, began their home front stories with the passage of the Lend-Lease Act in March 1941. After the Act was passed, six private flying schools were opened in the U.S. to provide flight training to Royal Air Force (RAF) cadets. One of the schools, British Flight Training School No. 6 (Darr School of Aeronautics), opened in early August of 1941 at the Ponca City airport. RAF officers oversaw the school's operations, but U.S. civilian flight instructors taught the training courses. In addition to instructing British cadets, the Darr School trained pilots for the United States Army Air Force. In all more than 1,110 pilots were trained at the school during the War.

Due west of Ponca City near the City of Tonkawa, the U.S. Army built Camp Tonkawa prisoner of war camp which officially opened in early 1943. The 160-acre camp had approximately 180 structures and was staffed by 500 U.S. Army guard troops, service personnel, and civilian employees. It would eventually house 3,000 German POWs. The prisoners were allowed to work outside the camp at local farms and ranches as well as at an alfalfa drying plant in Tonkawa. Prisoners also took jobs inside the camp as waiters in the officers’ club and as mechanics. The camp operated at or near capacity until September 1945 when it was closed, and the POWs were returned to Europe.

The Chilocco Indian Agricultural School north of Ponca near the Oklahoma/Kansas border was founded in 1883 to provide academic and vocational education to Native American students from across the U.S. Multiple graduates of the school went on to become U.S. military Code Talkers during WWII and three of the school's graduates were awarded the Army Medal of Honor for heroics during the War. In addition, C Company, 180th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division was located on the Chilocco campus.

Several large manufacturing companies were located in Kay County during the war. Among them was Continental Oil Company, headquartered in Ponca City, which operated a separate oil refinery to manufacture high-octane aviation gasoline for the U.S. government. The refinery was the largest in the U.S. and the company's lubricating oil and wax plant was the only one of its kind during the War. Both facilities were major employers and their locations in Ponca made the city one of the top ten prime targets in the U.S. for potential attack or sabotage.

Today, Ponca City and Kay County continue to commemorate and preserve the memories of their World War II history with the Ponca City Veterans Day Parade, one of the largest parades in the state, Memorial Day celebrations, and exhibits at the McCarter Museum in Tonkawa which houses numerous artifacts from Camp Tonkawa. In addition War Memorial Park and the Veterans Plaza in Ponca, the Ponca Indian Cemetery, Blackwell Zinc Company WWII Memorial, the Camp Tonkawa Monument, and the last remaining Darr School of Aeronautics Hangar, Hanger No. 3, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, all serve as reminders of the sacrifices the citizens of Ponca City and Kay County made during World War II.