Pithole, Pennsylvania
Pithole, or Pithole City, is a ghost town in Cornplanter Township, Venango County in Pennsylvania, about 6 miles from Oil Creek State Park. The town was laid out in May 1865, and by December was incorporated with an approximate population of 20,000. The city derived its name from its proximity to Pith Hole Creek, which flows throughVenango County to the Allegheny River. It is the site of the first commercial oil well in the U.S., which opened in 1866.
About Pithole, Pennsylvania in brief
Pithole, or Pithole City, is a ghost town in Cornplanter Township, Venango County in Pennsylvania, about 6 miles from Oil Creek State Park. The town was laid out in May 1865, and by December was incorporated with an approximate population of 20,000. The site was cleared of overgrowth and was donated to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission in 1961. A visitor center, containing exhibits pertaining to the history of Pitholes in 1972, was built in 1972. The city derived its name from its proximity to Pith Hole Creek, which flows throughVenango County to the Allegheny River. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, and is located on Pennsylvania Route 36 and Pennsylvania Route 227. The nearest cities are Titusville, approximately 8 miles to the northwest, and Oil City, 9 miles to the southwest. Pithol was located on the primary road from east Pennsylvania to west Pennsylvania, which is about 4 miles southwest of Pennsylvania Route 2 and 2 miles east of Oil City. It is the site of the Drake Well Museum, the first commercial oil well in the U.S., which opened in 1866. The first commercial well was drilled at the Frazier Well, which extended to the hottest part of the summer of 1866, up to 615 feet below ground level. The Frazier Well is the hottest place in the United States, except for the July Well which extended from July to July of that year, which was hotter than July 1, 1867.
The most recent commercial well to be drilled was the First Well, at the end of July 1869, which reached a depth of 515 feet and was completed in August of the same year. At its peak, Pithhole had at least 54 hotels, 3 churches, the third largest post office in Pennsylvania,. a newspaper, a theater, a railroad, the world’s first pipeline and a red-light district “the likes of Dodge City’s. ” The origin of the name “Pitholes” itself is a mystery. One origination theory is that early pioneers stumbled across strange fissures from which sulfurous fumes wafted. Another possible explanation involves the discovery of ancient pits dug by early settlers, some 8 feet wide and 12 feet deep, that were cribbed with oil-soaked timbers. These pits supposedly predate the Senecas who inhabited the area from the mid-17th to the late 18th century. Most of the oil produced in northwestern Pennsylvania was formed in sandstone reservoir rocks at the boundary between the Mississippian and Devonian rock layers. Over time, the oil migrated toward the surface, became trapped beneath an impervious layer of caprock, and formed a reservoir. The presence of upwards-curving folds in the caprock called anticlines, or sometimes an inversion of an anticline.
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This page is based on the article Pithole, Pennsylvania published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 02, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
