| Kanotex Refining Company | |
| Fate: | Sold to APCO |
| Predecessor: | Superior Refining Company |
| Successor: | Anderson-Prichard Oil Corporation |
| Foundation: | 1909 |
| Defunct: | October 1953 |
| Location City: | Arkansas City, Kansas |
| Location Country: | United States |
| Area Served: | Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri |
| Industry: | petroleum refining and distribution |
The Kanotex Refining Company (reporting mark: KOTX), a regional oil refinery and gasoline distributor, began operation in Caney, Kansas, in 1909,[1] a successor to the Superior Refining Company. The company's logo was a Kansas sunflower behind a five-point star;[2] the Kan-O-Tex name referred to Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas as the states in which the company originally marketed its products.
John McEwen Ames became the company's president in 1915[3] and established a main refinery in Arkansas City, Kansas, in 1917[4] which would become the base of the company's operations. While the initial market was Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, Meyer Brothers Gas Station & General Store in Orchard Farm, Missouri, sold Kan-O-Tex fuel in the late 1920s; by 1930, Kan-O-Tex products were advertised locally in St. Joseph, Missouri, by the Home Oil and Gas Corporation, a chain of nineteen filling stations.[5]
The Kan-O-Tex brand and reporting mark were acquired by the now-defunct Anderson-Prichard Oil Corporation of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in October 1953 and are no longer in use.
One Kan-O-Tex Service Station, the former Little's Service Station on U.S. Route 66 in Galena, Kansas, was restored in 2007 as a diner and souvenir shop as part of wider efforts to rebuild and market the historic U.S. Route 66 as a tourism destination.[6]