[9] Ponca City's history and economy has been shaped chiefly by the ebb and flow of the petroleum industry.

Marland's exploitation of oil reserves generated growth and wealth that were previously unimaginable on the Oklahoma prairie, and his company virtually built the city from the ground up.

[citation needed] Marland and his associates built mansions to display their new wealth, including the Grand Home and the E.W.

[11] After nearly two decades of ownership and an oil bust that crippled Oklahoma's economy in the late 1980s, DuPont sold off its Conoco assets in 1998.

[11] ConocoPhillips was then the sixth-largest publicly traded oil company in the world, and the third largest in the United States.

[12] The city's recent efforts to grow its economy beyond the petroleum industry have attracted a number of technology, manufacturing, and service jobs.

Opened to the public in May 2007, the Conoco Museum features artifacts, photographs, and other historical items related to the petroleum industry and its culture in northern Oklahoma.

Until recently, European Americans' accounts of their settlement and the growth of the oil industry in Ponca City have often overshadowed both the long ancient history of indigenous peoples in the area, and those tribes who were resettled to Oklahoma in the 19th century under Indian Removal.

Followed by the United States government's failure to provide adequate supplies and malaria at their destination, nearly one-third of the Ponca died from illness and exposure.

[15] With the aid of prominent attorneys working pro bono, Standing Bear filed a writ of habeas corpus challenging his arrest.

The case of Standing Bear v. Crook (1879) was a landmark decision in the U.S. District Court, where the judge ruled that Indians had the same legal rights as other United States citizens.

[17] Since the late 20th century, the Ponca tribe has worked to build its infrastructure and improve services for its people.

In February 2006, the tribe received a grant of more than $800,000 from the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community of Minnesota for debt retirement and economic development.

[citation needed] Nearby north-central tribes are the Kaw, Osage, Otoe-Missouria, Pawnee, and Tonkawa.

[citation needed] Ponca City is located in southeastern Kay County northwest of the Arkansas River.

Ponca City faces very hot and humid summers with temperatures frequently rising to over 100 °F (38 °C), as well as severe storms.

In 2002, Conoco Inc. and Phillips Petroleum Company, whose headquarters were in nearby Bartlesville, Oklahoma, merged into ConocoPhillips.

The Ponca City Refinery processes a mixture of light, medium, and heavy crude oils.

Infrastructure improvements have enabled the delivery of increased volumes of locally produced advantaged crude oil by pipeline and truck.

Finished petroleum products are shipped by truck, railcar, and pipelines to markets throughout the Midcontinent region.

[30] Marland was reportedly asked, "E. W., why don't you have ... a statue to the vanishing American, a Ponca, Otoe, or an Osage - a monument of great size?"

In 1927, miniature 3 feet (0.9 m) sculptures were submitted as part of a competition by 12 U.S. and international sculptors: John Gregory, Maurice Sterne, Hermon Atkins MacNeil, James Earle Fraser, Alexander Stirling Calder, Wheeler Williams, Mario Korbel, F. Lynn Jenkins, Mahonri Young, Arthur Lee, Jo Davidson, and Bryant Baker.

[citation needed] Widely known as the Pioneer Woman Statue, the bronze sculpture's true name is "Confident".

[31] A related museum commemorating Oklahoma women was opened on September 16, 1958, on the 65th anniversary of the Cherokee Strip land run.

[33] Ponca City has three private schools that serve students from pre-K through eighth grade: The Ponca City region receives electricity generated hydroelectrically at Kaw Lake, a United States Army Corps of Engineers project.

The facility, located 7 mi (11 km) east of Ponca City, dams the Arkansas River.

The local airport booster club hosts a fly-in breakfast every first Saturday of the month, year around, "rain or shine".

[40] A film about E. W. Marland was expected to be in production to shoot in Ponca City, titled The Ends of the Earth.

The film was to star the Academy Award winner Jennifer Lawrence, and was originally expected to start in 2014.