Ninety miles east of Wichita, 100 miles north of Tulsa you find Fredonia, Kansas. Fredonia, Kansas was named after the Fredonia we find in New York State. Fredonia, Kansas was incorporated in 1871.
Eleven years after the first European settlers set foot in this Kansas community located at the southeast tip of the state alongside the Fall River, Fredonia was organized and a name for the town was chosen – Fredonia Town Company. That year was 1868.
Following the discovery of oil and gas in nearby Neodesha in 1892, the regional oil business ramped up in southeast Kansas. By 1900, Fredonia evolved into a regional energy center, a position Fredonia maintains to this day. Last year, seventy-two Fredonia oil wells produced 1,703,238 cumulative barrels of oil.
Since 1900, oil production in Fredonia has steadily increased, while industry efficiencies resulted in a streamlined exploration processes.
In the oil business, production bbls (barrels of oil) represents the volume of oil produced, annually. Whereas cumulative bbls (barrels of oil) represents the running total for all oil produced from a well, a field or a lease since the well, field or lease began production.
The highest count for Fredonia oil wells was registered in 2012, when the town had 212 wells. Those 212 wells produced 1,599,095 cumulative barrels of oil that year.
There were seven per cent fewer barrels of oil produced in Fredonia in 2012 than were produced last year, in 2026. Even though the number of active Fredonia oil wells in 2026 – 72 oil wells – represents only 33% of the number of Fredonia wells in 2012, when there were 212 wells.
The first time Fredonia produced in excess of one million cumulative barrels of oil was 1987 – 1,016,872 bbls. The 1,016,872 bbls were extracted through 120 wells
Fredonia’s cumulative oil production hit the 1.5-million mark for the first time in 2006 – 1,508,415 bbls. There were 195 wells pumping oil in Fredonia that year.
Of Kansas’s 105 counties, Wilson County (Fredonia is located in Wilson County) is ranked #54 in terms of cumulative oil production.
The oil business has a strong foothold in Fredonia. Cherokee Wells, Viking Production and E and E Holdings are each based in Fredonia.
